The Gannon University women’s basketball team fell to eighth in the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) Atlantic Region media poll this week, but it was through no fault of Knights’ sophomore guard McKenna Shives.
Shives, a 5-foot-5 native of Struthers, Ohio, averaged 16.5 points per game in Gannon’s two games last week – a win over rival Mercyhurst and an overtime loss to Slippery Rock in the annual Pink Zone game.
This marks the second season that D2SIDA will be sponsoring regional and national basketball polls. The regional panel is composed of a six-person committee with two representatives from each of the three conferences of the region.
The national poll has one sports director representative from each of the eight NCAA Division II regions and is released weekly on Tuesdays.
In the women’s D2SIDA Atlantic Regional Poll, West Liberty (W. Va.) leads with a win-loss record of 16-1. In second sits Shippensburg with a record of 15-2. Third place is Virginia Union with a 13-1 record.
Gannon has a record of 12-6 going into Wednesday’s matchup with Edinboro at the Hammermill Center and the Knights trail West Chester, which is 13-5.
Gannon is ranked eighth among 10 teams and is ahead of Fairmont State (13-4) and Bloomsburg (11-6).
Shives, meanwhile, continues to perform, as she averaged 16.5 points, 4.5 3-pointers, 1.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and one assist as the Knights split against Mercyhurst and Slippery Rock last week. Shives started the week of with 16 points in a 65-62 come-from-behind victory at Mercyhurst, going 5-for-10 overall from the field and 4-of-8 from the 3-point arc.
She got the ball rolling when she hit a 3-pointer with 7:31 left in the game, which created the first tie since the second quarter and brought the team back from a nine-point deficit.
Coming off the comeback win against Mercyhurst, Shives definitely had good vibes flowing because she dropped 17 points against Slippery Rock the next game and hit a season-high five 3-pointers as well.
The game against Slippery Rock would be Shives 12th time scoring in the double digits this season. On top of that, she has hit at least three 3-pointers in a game 10 times.
On the season, Shives is averaging 12 points per game, shooting 35 percent from the 3-point arc, and is a perfect 20-for-20 from the free-throw line.
BRANDON JACES
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