NEW ORLEANS (JMU Athletics) – Following a week averaging 26.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, Peyton McDaniel was tabbed Sun Belt Player of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday afternoon.

McDaniel earned the honor for the fourth time this season and the fifth time in her career. JMU has now seen a Duke voted the conference’s player of the week for the sixth time this season and fourth time in the last five weeks. The last Sun Belt school to capture six or more player of the week laurels was UT Arlington during the 2016-17 season when the Mavericks had six. Lastly, the six weekly conference honors are the most by the program since the 2015-16 campaign when the Dukes won eight times as members of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Last week, the redshirt junior went 19-for-33 (.576) from the field to help lead the Dukes to a 23-4 record with a perfect 14-0 mark in Sun Belt Conference play. McDaniel opened the week tying her season-high in scoring with 29 points on a 12-for-19 (.632) shooting night in a 77-61 win over App State on Thursday. The guard also connected on 3-of-7 (.429) from three, grabbed seven rebounds and recorded two steals. Against Old Dominion, the Birdsboro, Pa. native poured in 23 points and grabbed five boards in a 66-53 victory on Sunday.

McDaniel leads the Sun Belt in scoring at 18.3 points per game while knocking down 40.2 percent (33-of-82) from three-point range in conference play.

For the first time since March 2, 2020, James Madison women’s basketball received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, as announced on Monday afternoon.

The Dukes earned two votes, placing them in a tie with Vanderbilt for 34th overall in the poll. Prior to the national attention the team received in 2020, the last time JMU received votes in the AP poll was on March 7, 2016, when the Dukes picked up eight votes heading into the CAA Tournament. Additionally, James Madison last cracked the top 25 in the AP poll on Feb. 16, 2015, when it checked in at No. 23.

— JMU Athletics —