Nicole McDermott caps sophomore season with NAIA All-America honors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With the 2021-22 all wrapped up following Tuesday's national championship game, Clarke University women's basketball team receives one more recognition as sophomore guard Nicole McDermott received All America Honorable Mention.

McDermott finished the season as the second-leading scorer for the Pride for the second-straight season as she boosted her scoring average to 12.4 points per game to finish the season, up nearly a full point from her freshman year in 2020-21.

She played and started in all 36 games for CU on the season with the team's second-highest minutes per game average at 29.3 and came just 0.1 away from tying for the highest rebounds per game average finishing with 7.3 rebounds per game at her guard position, standing at 5-7.

Along with the scoring and rebounding, McDermott has been a do-it-all player with 2.5 assists per game and 1.7 steals per game averages while providing efficient shooting percentages of 45.8 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from three-point range, and 79.8 percent from the free throw line with four of the five numbers good for second-best among the starting lineup and the 1.7 steals per game leading the team.

"Nicole is more than deserving of being placed on the list with the best players in the country," head coach Courtney Boyd said. "For Nicole to be able to be one of the leaders on this team, play to win without any other focus, and be able to be as efficient statistically as she is, this accolade comes as no surprise."

This will be the fifth-straight season the Pride have a member on the All-America teams following the four-straight seasons Makenna Haase received recognition and McDermott will be the first guard to receive All-America mention since Morgan Pitz received Honorable Mention in 2019-20.

For her regular season performance, McDermott earned All Heart of America Athletic Conference First Team in 2021-22 after receiving Second Team honors in the 2020-21 season. When final voting for All-Conference was tabulated, McDermott finished in fourth for Player of the Year voting in the Heart, 54 points behind the Player of the Year's final voting total.

On Dec. 20 this season, the Cascade, Iowa product earned the Heart's Player of the Week honor for the first time in her career after games of 22 points and 18 points against Mount Mercy and Saint Xavier while shooting 82.4 percent from the field and a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line. She also averaged 5.5 rebounds per game and 1.5 assists per game, and 1.5 assists per game over that two-game stretch.

This season, McDermott tied or exceeded her highest point total from her freshman season of 19 points six times this season including scoring 20 or more points four times on the season, setting a new career-high of 29 points on Nov. 13 against Bethel University (Ind.). She found a scoring grove in the final stretch of the season, scoring double figures in the final 15 games of the season, including in four games where she played below her minutes average.

McDermott and all but two of the players that saw time during the 2021-22 season are expected to return to the Pride for the 2022-23 season.