UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Kamaria McDaniel has been the breakout star of the Penn State Lady Lions' basketball team this year. The junior guard is the team's leading scorer, scoring 18.0 points per game, while also adding 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
McDaniel, a 5'10' junior guard, was expected to make strides in her game this season, but few predicted that she would be the team's leading scorer by over six points per game. Despite the big jump in production, it's a role she feels confident having.
"It's something that I embrace," McDaniel said. "I always embrace new roles and challenges, so this is just another one."
McDaniel was quick to give credit to her supporting cast.
"I know it comes with a lot," she said. "But I have to give credit to my teammates and my coaches for putting trust in me."
However, former McDaniel teammate and current student assistant Jaida Travascio-Green and head coach Carolyn Kieger were just as quick in returning the praise.
"She does a really good job of doing whatever she can to get our team where we need to be," Travascio-Green said. "I think that's a really good trait of hers."
"Kamaria has a sense of fearlessness that I appreciate," Keiger said. "To be a scorer that can score from all three levels, meaning she can get to the rim, she can have a mid-range game and she can shoot the three, it makes her hard to guard and hard to scout," she continued. "I think she's going to continue to flourish under our system."
Regardless of who deserves the credit, we saw that when McDaniel gets the ball rolling, she's nearly unstoppable. Last week in a 78-73 win over Pittsburgh, she scored 40 points and became only the third Lady Lion to reach that single game scoring mark in the program's history.
For the junior, it was a focus in practice that paid off on the court during her milestone performance.
I've just been putting in a lot of work and the coaches have been working with me watching film so I'm just learning and try not to make the same mistakes to take bad shots and do what I practice and it worked out well for me," she said in the postgame press conference following the win.
That stellar outing earned her the honors of being named Big Ten Player of the Week, and there's reason to believe that this was no one-time performance.
"I think it can get even [better] than that," Travascio-Green said. "She has the ability to score, of course, we've seen that, but she's also a really great defender and she can lead our team very well, so I think her peak is still to come."
Kieger elaborated on how to make these performances occur on a consistent basis.
"The way she was attacking the rim in transition, I though was elite [against Pitt]," she said. "That's what we're trying to get her to get, that Mamba Mentality, that Kobe Bryant, 'Don't back down, play 40 minutes all out, as hard as you can.'"
Although the accolades are a bonus, McDaniel is more concerned on the team's success and playing through the offensive schemes.
"I think that I can bring a big impact to this team just to help us win, because that's always the main goal," she said. "As long as we just keep playing together and I take what's open, as long as it's within what we're doing as a team, I think I bring that [impact]."
It's well documented that McDaniel is a talented scorer, but there's confidence that she can provide an impact on the game in a variety of ways.
"Sure, 40 points is great, but I think she's capable of being a triple-double player and I'm excited to see that happen," Travascio-Green said. "I know 40 points is great, but I think it's the bottom of what she can reach."
In terms of triple-doubles, McDaniel doesn't see that as outside the realm of possibility, actually, she tries to embody it.
"I would probably try to compare [my playstyle] to Russell Westbrook," McDaniel said. "Just real fast and powerful and very dangerous in transition."
Comparing yourself to an NBA All-Star and potential future Hall of Famer is a tall order, but if you ask the team, that's just who McDaniel is.
"I've never met someone as competitive as Kamaria," Travascio-Green said. "If she wants to get something done, she will get it done."
