Former Twin Valley girls basketball star and James Madison redshirt junior Peyton McDaniel was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Monday.
"I was excited when I found out I won the award," McDaniel said via phone Tuesday. "This has been something that I have been working towards all year, starting even in the summer time. I sat down with my coach over the summer and we created a plan and layout and being able to see that come to fruition was great."
McDaniel, a 6-0 guard and Birdsboro native, is the 11th JMU player to be voted as the conference's top player.
McDaniel averaged 16.0 points and 8.4 rebounds this regular season as the Dukes compiled a 27-4 record with a spotless 18-0 record in conference play. She cracked JMU's top-10 scoring list this season and now has accumulated 1,589 points in her college career.
The current Twin Valley girls basketball team took a trip to Villanova to watch McDaniel and JMU play the Wildcats in a non-conference affair on Dec. 15.
"It means a lot to me to have the continuing support from the Twin Valley community," McDaniel said. "Without that community, I would not be the person I am today. We played at Villanova in a non-conference game and the support that I had there from all of them was awesome. It means a lot to me that they still show unwavering support despite being out of high school for few years."
McDaniel scored 2,102 points during her career at Twin Valley to become one of only six players in the Berks Girls League to score 2,000 or more points.
She trails only Daniel Boone/UConn's Wendy Davis (2,504), Schuylkill Valley/Marist's Corielle Yarde (2,283), Hamburg/Mount St. Mary's Zena Edwards (Lutz) (2,231), and Reading High/Coppin State's Rashida Suber (2,111). Kutztown/Manhattan College's Stacey Jack (Edwards) scored 2,034.
Top-seeded James Madison will next play in the Sun Belt Conference semifinals Sunday, March 9, at 12:30 p.m.
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