Peyton McDaniel has made smooth transition into team leader at James Madison
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Peyton McDaniel received Sun Belt Conference all-league honors Monday but the Twin Valley grad didn’t want to make a big deal about it.
Same goes for reaching the 1,000-point scoring milestone earlier this season.
“It’s cool for me,” said the James Madison redshirt sophomore of her second-team selection, “but we have bigger goals for the team.”
McDaniel is the leading scorer for the Dukes and led the conference in 3-point shooting percentage (46.4). She’s knocking down a team-best 80.6 percent of her free throws and is second on the team in rebounds, blocked shots, and steals.
All good, she says, but her focus right now is totally on seeing James Madison win the Sun Belt Tournament this week and returning to the NCAA Tournament.
“We have the tools to do it,” McDaniel said. “I don’t think anyone can hold us back except for ourselves.”
The 6-foot guard is just happy that she’s been able to take the floor this season without worrying about an aching knee or about making concessions to it. That wasn’t the case a year ago when her main focus was on adjusting to her body’s needs as she returned from knee surgery that cost her the entire 2021-22 season.
“This year has been much smoother,” she said. “It’s been great not having to think about my body and how it’s feeling day-to-day, just being able to focus on playing free . . . free-minded. I’m more comfortable (now) in my mobility.”
She’s able to make a hard cut to the basket without a little voice in the back of her head telling her ‘You can’t do that,’ or that she’ll pay the price for it if she does.
“I limited myself last year physically (because of that fear) and was learning to adapt to my body again because I hadn’t played in so long,” she said. “That was a big challenge.”
Her big challenge this season has been in becoming the Dukes’ go-to player. Last year Lancaster Catholic grad Kiki Jefferson handled that load, leading the team in scoring and rebounding as it went 26-8 and won the conference tournament.
This season a lot of that has fallen on McDaniel, and she’s handled it just fine. It’s not like she wasn’t used to carrying the load before.
She did that at Twin Valley where she scored more than 2,100 points, was a two-time Berks Player of the Year and a three-time All-State pick. She is one of just six Berks girls to reach the 2,000-point milestone and is considered one of the Berks League’s all-time greats, right up there with Rashida Suber, Wendy Davis, Stacey Jack, and others.
McDaniel has made a smooth transition to the top for the Dukes. She’s averaging a team-best 14.5 points, grabbing 7.0 rebounds, second on the team, and has played in all 31 games.
She scored a career-high 33 points at Southern Mississippi Jan. 11 and grabbed a career-high 13 boards in a win over Coastal Carolina Feb. 17.
She’s done all those while often going head-to-head against the league’s best defenders now that she has emerged as the team scoring leader.
“It’s been really fun, especially coming back from my injury,” McDaniel said. “It’s mostly (been about) learning to adapt (to that challenge). Last year it was different; I was coming off the bench and not as much of the focal point. (Coming into the season) there was space to fill in terms of leadership. (It’s been about) learning to grasp that new role.”
The Dukes went 21-10 during the regular season and head to Pensacola Bay Center Friday for their tournament opener. As the No. 3 seed they earned a double-bye.
McDaniel showed what she was capable of last year in the championship game against Texas State when she went off for 30 points in 28 minutes, hitting 10-for-11 shots from the field, including an NCAA record-tying 7-for-7 shooting exhibition from 3-point range. She was named to the all-tournament team a week after being named the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year.
McDaniel plans to play a fourth and fifth season with the Dukes, then hopes to play professionally, just as her father did.
Tyrone McDaniel had a Hall-of-Fame career at Lenoir-Rhyne before going on to play a dozen seasons professionally in Europe and Central America.
Like her dad, Peyton wants to eventually coach. For now all of that is miles and miles away. She’s concerned with present task which is seeing the Dukes win three games this weekend.
They don’t enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed, as they did a year ago, but to McDaniel that makes little difference.
“It really doesn’t (change things),” she said. “It is what it is. You play the cards you’re dealt. We were lucky enough to get a double bye.
“We’re feeling good. We’re really excited. We definitely feel prepared for what’s ahead of us. (It’s a matter) of doing what we know how to do.”
