Akwasi Abeyie Yeboah (born June 15, 1997) is a British professional basketball player for Galatasaray Ekmas of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). Yeboah competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) and led the team to a championship in 2015. Yeboah played three seasons of college basketball for the

Stony Brook Seawolves The Stony Brook Seawolves are the athletic teams of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, United States. The school competes at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and joined the all-sports Colonial At ...

before transferring to play for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights as a graduate student for his final season of eligibility.

Early life and career

Yeboah was born in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana but moved to the London suburb of Chigwell, England at the age of nine after his mother Winifred found a nursing job to better provide for him and older brother Kwame. Yeboah started out as a soccer player and did not begin playing basketball until the age of 13. He was, by his admission, terrible at basketball at first. His physical education teacher told him that he was not competitive, which motivated him to improve. He competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) after the Barking Abbey School, which he attended, partnered with the Crusaders to give their top players the ability to play in the NBL. He had a season-high 21 points twice, against the Bradford Dragons and

Essex Leopards The Essex & Herts Leopards were an English semi-professional basketball club, based in Brentwood, Essex and St Albans, Hertfordshire. The Leopards competed in Division 1 of the English Basketball League. The team was established in 1997 as Wa ...

, and scored 19 points in a 12-point comeback win against the

Reading Rockets The Reading Rockets are an English semi-professional basketball club based in the town of Reading, England. Founded in 1997, the Rockets compete in NBL Division 1, the second tier of the British basketball system. History The Rockets were ...

. Yeboah was a key piece of the team that won the 2015 NBL Division I Playoff Championship. He averaged 12.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. In the league final, Yeboah scored 21 points and had seven rebounds. He received his only NCAA Division I offer from Stony Brook's head coach

Steve Pikiell Stephen Christopher Pikiell ( ; born November 21, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and since March 16th, 2016, the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers. Prior to Rutgers, Pikiell was the head coach at Stony Brook for over a decade, ...

College career

Stony Brook (2016–2019)

Yeboah redshirted his first season at Stony Brook, which was Pikiell's last at the school before accepting the job at Rutgers. Stony Brook made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history as Yeboah sat out the season due to lack of projected playing time. As a redshirt freshman, Yeboah averaged 9.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and was named to the

America East The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research u ...

All-Freshman Team. He scored 21 points and had 16 rebounds in the first round of the America East Tournament in a 70–60 win against Binghamton. In his sophomore season, Yeboah averaged 15.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He had nine 20-point games as a sophomore and was named to the Second Team All-America East. He scored a career-high 30 points to go with eight rebounds against

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

on December 7, 2017. Yeboah averaged 20.4 points through the first 12 games of his junior season. On December 22, 2018 against Quinnipiac, Yeboah suffered a hyperextended knee but returned to the lineup after missing a game. Yeboah averaged 16.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a junior for the Seawolves while shooting 41.3 percent from the floor and 31.6 percent from three-point range. He was named to the First Team All-America East. In three seasons at Stony Brook, Yeboah scored 1,317 points, the sixth-most in program history.

Rutgers (2019–2020)

Yeboah entered the transfer portal in March 2019 as an impending graduate student, but retained his eligibility at Stony Brook for the 2019–20 season. He was listed as the 36th-best graduate transfer according to ''Stadium'''s Jeff Goodman. On May 2, 2019, Yeboah announced that he would transfer to Rutgers, reuniting with his former head coach Steve Pikiell and choosing the Scarlet Knights over SMU and

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

. He was eligible immediately as a graduate transfer. Pikiell called Yeboah "a huge addition to our program,” and he was a key piece in helping Rutgers have one of the best homecourt records and its first winning season since 2006. Yeboah scored 20 points, including a three-pointer to tie the game at 72 with two minutes to play, in a 75–72 win against Nebraska on January 26, 2020 and surpassed the 1,500-point milestone. In his senior season, Yeboah averaged 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and earned the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

Professional career

On August 12, 2020, Yeboah signed his first professional contract with Saint-Quentin of the French LNB Pro B. He averaged 12.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 steal per game. On August 3, 2021, Yeboah signed with Saint-Chamond Basket. On June 19, 2022, he has signed with Darüşşafaka of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). On July 7, 2023 he signed with Galatasaray Ekmas of the Basketball Super League (BSL).

National team career

Yeboah competed for Great Britain on its U16, U18 and U20 teams. In the

2017 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B The 2017 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B was the 13th edition of the Division B of the FIBA U20 European basketball championship. It was played in Oradea, Romania, from 14 to 23 July 2017. 21 teams participated in the competition. The h ...

, he averaged 14.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game. Yeboah scored 22 points and collected 6 rebounds in the third-place game, a 81–65 win against Russia, and was named to the All-Star Five.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , 31 , , 10 , , 21.2 , , .372 , , .341 , , .797 , , 5.1 , , .6 , , .5 , , .5 , , 9.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , 32 , , 31 , , 28.5 , , .452 , , .355 , , .803 , , 5.1 , , 1.4 , , .9 , , .2 , , 15.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Stony Brook , 32 , , 31 , , 31.8 , , .413 , , .316 , , .785 , , 7.7 , , 1.4 , , .9 , , .5 , , 16.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Rutgers , 31 , , 22 , , 23.8 , , .435 , , .352 , , .781 , , 4.8 , , .9 , , .8 , , .5 , , 9.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 126 , , 94 , , 26.4 , , .419 , , .338 , , .792 , , 5.7 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , .4 , , 12.9

References

External links

Rutgers Scarlet Knights bioStony Brook Seawolves bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeboah, Akwasi 1997 births Living people Basketball players from Greater London Black British sportsmen British expatriate basketball people in France British expatriate basketball people in the United States British men's basketball players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players Ghanaian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Chigwell Sportspeople from Sekondi-Takoradi Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players Small forwards Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball players Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball players