Former CAPERS Greats named to U Sports Top 100

(Ottawa, ON) – U SPORTS, the national brand of the university sports in Canada, is set to reveal the Top 100 women's basketball players of the century. Cape Breton University will have two former stars named to the Top 100. Kelsey Hodgson (Johnston) 2005-2010 and Alison Keough 2013-2018 are members of this prestigious list.

In celebration of the centennial anniversary of U SPORTS women's basketball, the Top 100 –chosen by a committee of U SPORTS women's basketball coaches and partners – will be unveiled marking the 100^th anniversary of the first Canadian university women's contest between the Queen's Gaels and McGill Martlets on Feb. 6, 1920.

"Selecting a group of individuals to represent excellence in your conference or league is always a difficult task," said Ryan Thorne, president of the U SPORTS women's basketball coaches' association. "This experience has shown me that there have been some amazing young women, who have represented our institutions well through basketball that have gone on to become remarkable women in life. Just researching the stories and receiving the feedback from coaches of different eras, was eye-opening.

Kelsey Hodgson, a Fredericton native led the nation in scoring twice and earned three AUS titles including two consecutive AUS titles in 2008-09 & 2009-10. IN 2005-06 she was a member of the CAPERS National silver medal-winning team. She would go on to sign a contract to play professionally for Torres Novas, a Division 1 club in Portugal and Slovakia after graduation.

Hodgson, who graduated from CBU in May of 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts Community Studies degree, capped off her career with the CAPERS by averaging a U Sports-high 22 points per game. She became the CAPERS' all-time leading scorer in the process (later surpassed by Alison Keough), was the AUS female nominee for the prestigious BLG Award, and was named the year's winner of the Myer and Jack Budovitch Award as Fredericton's athlete of the year. Hodgson was named the AUS MVP twice and AUS 1^st Team All-Star three times. On the national stage, Hodgson was named U Sports 1^st-Team All-Star twice and U Sports 2^nd-Team one time.

Hodgson credits a lot of her success to CBU. "You always hear about the family atmosphere at CBU and it's true. I could never imagine being anything but a CAPER, as an athlete and a student!" said Hodgson.

When the head coach of the CBU women's basketball team, Fabian McKenzie, was asked to describe his former player and Cape Breton basketball legend, Alison Keough, he did so using just four words.

"The most humble superstar."

The use of the word 'superstar' might sound hyperbolic to some but there is no questioning Alison Keough's legacy within the Cape Breton basketball community.  Hailing from Marion Bridge, NS, Keough is now the proud owner of numerous school and AUS records compiled over her incredibly successful five-year career at CBU.

Keough went on to amass a seemingly endless list of accomplishments including; all-time AUS rebound leader, all-time leading CBU points scorer, U Sports and AUS Rookie of the Year, AUS and U Sports first-team All-Canadian and Academic All-Canadian to name a few. Keough was also a member of the AUS conference title in 2016-17 and earned a national team call-up to the 2017 FISU games in Taipei.

Members of the Top 100 will then be honoured at the Final 8 during the national championship final on Sunday, March 8th, hosted jointly by Carleton University, University of Ottawa and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group