March 11, 2024—Mount St. Mary's freshman De'Shayne Montgomery has been named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year while senior Dakota Leffew earned First Team All-MAAC honors.  The Mount also placed a trio of student-athletes on the MAAC All-Academic team.

Montgomery earns the MAAC Rookie of the Year honor after averaging 12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 steals on the season.  He is just the fourth Mountaineer to win a conference Rookie of the Year award, joining Vado Morse (2018-19), Shivaughn Wiggins (2012-13) and Chris McGuthrie (1992-93), who were all named Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year.

Montgomery closed the season strong, winning MAAC Rookie of the Week honors in each of the past four weeks.  He has scored 20 or more points in five of the Mount's past six games, averaging 21.3 points, 4.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds in the six contests.  He is shooting 63.0 percent (46-of-73) from the field, 53.8 percent from three-point range (7-of-13) and 74.4 percent (29-of-39) from the foul line over that stretch of games.

Leffew collects First Team All-MAAC honors after averaging 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game.  He leads the team in scoring (3rd in the MAAC), assists (5th in the MAAC) and three-point field goals made (69).  Leffew has scored 20 or more points 12 times this season.  He is the first Mountaineer to earn First Team All-Conference honors since Damian Chong Qui was named First Team All-Northeast Conference in 2020-21.  Leffew scored a career high 34 points in the Mount's win at Marist, and he has scored in double figures 26 times this season, including a streak of 23 consecutive games.  Leffew has scored 506 points this season, the most in a season by a Mount player since Junior Robinson had 703 in 2017-18.

The Mount placed a trio of student-athletes on the All-Academic team.  Frantisek Barton, Xavier Lipscomb and George Tinsley all earned the honor, which requires a 3.20 or better grade-point average.  Barton is an accounting major who has appeared in 26 games with one start for the Mount this season.  Lipscomb, who started the first two games of the season before suffering a season-ending injury, is a double major in accounting and cyber security.  Tinsley, who scored the 1000^th point of his collegiate career on Saturday, is averaging 5.2 points and 4.4 rebounds while starting 30 of 31 games played for the Mount this season.  He is a business administration major.

The Mountaineers will face Canisius in the Opening Round of the 2024 MAAC Tournament on Tuesday, March 12, at 5:15 p.m. at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.  The Mount finished the regular season with a 13-18 overall record and earned the No. 8 seed in the MAAC Tournament with a 9-11 conference record.  The winner of Tuesday's matchup advances to the MAAC Quarterfinals to face top-seeded Quinnipiac on Wednesday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m.