SEATTLE (May 9) ­ Tony Binetti, an All-American guard on Seattle Pacific University's basketball team, has been chosen to receive an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

Binetti (Sr., Enumclaw), who signed to play professionally in Italy earlier this week, becomes the Falcons' 19th NCAA honoree and the sixth in the last three years.

Binetti is the second basketball athlete to earn a postgraduate scholarship, joining Geoff Ping (1997).

A business major with a 3.56 GPA, Binetti was twice voted Academic All-District and made the academic all-Great Northwest Athletic Conference team three years.

On the court, Binetti was named to two All-America teams and was the GNAC player of the year after helping Seattle Pacific go 26-6 and reach the NCAA Division II semifinals. Thursday he is expected to make his debut for Climamio Bologna, the top team in Italy's Serie A league.

The NCAA has awarded 58 postgraduate scholarships of $7,500 each to 29 male student-athletes and 29 female student-athletes who participated in winter sports.