After watching Kamaria McDaniel score 27 points against North Carolina Central in the consolation game of the Cal Classic, Penn State women’s basketball coach Carolyn Kieger thought it might be time to raise the bar for her standout junior guard.
“It’s funny how I was just talking to Kamaria after her 27-point game that she had last game. I said, ‘What, why settle for 27? I thought you passed up some good shots. Go for 40,’” Kieger recalled.
McDaniel took her coach up on it.
McDaniel had a night for the books, pouring in a career-high 40 points. The Lady Lions made sure it held up, weathering a bit of a Pitt rally at the end after building up a double-figure lead — a problem through the first month of the season — in posting a 78-73 victory over the Panthers in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Thursday at the Bryce Jordan Center.
“It’s cool,” McDaniel said of her performance. “I just know I was really concerned about us finishing strong as a team. We keep running this narrative of teams being able to creep their way back in the third and fourth quarters, so I was just happy that we were able to finish strong, and I guess that’s the extra, but it was more important to get the win.”
Siyeh Frazier added 11 points and freshman Makenna Marisa nine for Penn State. It’s the first time under Kieger that the Lady Lions have won back-to-back games as they improved their overall mark to 5-4.
The story, though, was McDaniel.
“It’s unbelievable,” Kieger said. “I don’t think there’s a team in the country that can stop her when she plays at that pace with the ball in her hands. It was something special to watch.”
McDaniel, the 5-foot-10 junior guard from Inkster, Mich., became just the third Lady Lion to reach the 40-point mark in a game, joining Kelly Mazzante (49) and Jen Bednarek (42).
“Coach emphasized us pushing pace and that was one of our keys,” McDaniel said. ‘My teammates were doing great jobs getting rebounds and keeping it up to me and spacing the floor out. They get a lot of credit for me scoring.”
McDaniel was 14-for-28 from the field and 10-for-15 at the foul line. She’s scored double figures in 15 straight games and is averaging 19.9 points per game this season.
She also had seven rebounds in her 39 minutes of action.
“She’s just so powerful when she’s going downhill with the ball in her hands. It’s really hard to stop her,” Kieger said.
McDaniel scored 17 points in the second quarter alone, as Penn State turned a tie game after 10 minutes into a 34-22 lead at halftime.
“It feels good. 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,” McDaniel said. “It worked well for me.”
The Lady Lions led by as many as 18 points in the second half. They were ahead by 12 with 2:30 left before Pitt finished the game on a 15-5 run. Penn State had squandered double-figure second half leads in home losses to LaSalle and George Mason.
Penn State’s 12 turnovers were its second-lowest total all season. The Lady Lions shot 39.1 percent from the floor and got to the foul line 40 times. Alisia Smith had a team-high nine rebounds.
“Right now, myself and my staff are really just focused on teaching. This is a group that needs a lot of it,” Kieger said. “We just have to keep getting better and keep learning every day.”
Pitt dipped to 3-5. Dayshannette Harris fronted the Panthers with 26 points, while Amber Brown collected 16 points and 12 rebounds.
