Basketball news: Esther Niamké-Moisan
wins Mid-South Conference
Freshman of the year

The dream of Esther Niamké-Moisan aka Monny Niamke about being part of the basketball news stories with Louisville Cardinals in the Big East Conference was shattered by the NCAA Eligibility Center despite signing a National Letter of Intend (NLI).

Instead she finds herself attending Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Kentucky and playing basketball in the Mid-South Conference in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics).

Her freshman season went well as she picked up the conference Freshman of the year award by the coaches of the Mid-South Conference. Niamké-Moisan finished the season averaging 12.8 points, 3.1 assists and 1.8 steals.

However the season has not always been rosy: with a conference record of 7-9 Lindsey Wilson College finished sixth in the conference which is not high enough to guarantee a post season.

The team was eliminated in the semi-final of the tournament and now have to wait and see if their season record of 20-12 qualify them to play in the post season.

In the quarter-final victory against Georgetown Niamké-Moisan fired in 24 points in 16 minutes (9-of-11 shots from the floor) to seal the victory (88-77). She was not allowed to play during the first 20 minutes for breaking team rules.

In total she played in all 31 games starting in 27 of them. You can watch a highlight clip from one of their games: Niamké-Moisan is in white wearing jersey 3.

The Esther Niamké-Moisan story

Long before Niamké-Moisan was making the national basketball news headlines in France, she was a local star for G.C.O Bihorel Basket, a club she joined when she was 12.

She led the U15 team to a national championship in the B division in 2006-2007 and a second place finish in 2007-2008. She also played for the U18 team and senior team in NF3 during her time at the club.

She was also admitted into the "Pôle Espoirs" during this period.

She was hoping for admission into INSEP and continue her basketball education with the CFBB, but she was not taken. This did not stop her for playing for France U16 and France U18 in the summer of 2008.

She ended up joining the USO Mondeville Basketball Academy in September 2008. Within two months of joining the club she found herself playing for the first team in the EuroCup Women and Ligue Féminine de Basketball competition.

In three years at Mondeville Niamké-Moisan played at all the levels: U18, Espoir, NF2 as well as with the senior team.

She also participated in the youth competitions for France U16, U17 and U18 to win international medals with France in each category. In her last season in France (2010-2011) she won the young player of the year award.

Despite playing all this basketball in France Niamké-Moisan wanted to play College hoops in the NCAA. Due to her performance during the U17 FIBA World Championship for Women she was offered places at different schools in the US.

However due to not meeting the academic requirements of the NCAA, she was unable to take up the scholarship she was offered and decided to take up an offer with a college in the NAIA.

If all goes well Niamké-Moisan is expecting to transfer to a NCAA College before her NCAA eligibility runs out.

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Date created: 06 March 2012

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