After setting a new career high in the UNC women’s basketball team’s win over Boston College on Sunday, Carolina redshirt freshman guard Kayla McPherson was named the ACC’s Rookie of the Week.

McPherson scored 22 points against the Eagles in her first appearance as a collegiate starter. McPherson stepped in for a Tar Heel team missing three starters. As well as points scored, McPherson also set career highs in field goals (nine), three-pointers (four), rebounds (six) and minutes (29:29).

McPherson also scored seven points in Carolina’s loss at Syracuse on Thursday, giving her a 14.5 points per game average over the course of last week.

The Boston College game was just McPherson’s fifth appearance of her college career. The highly-touted recruit battled various knee and leg injuries at the end of her high school career and beginning of her college career, including a torn ACL which kept her out of her entire senior season of high school. Her true freshman season at UNC was entirely dedicated to rehab, and a new injury in this past preseason kept her out until January. According to McPherson, her debut against Clemson was her first action in approximately 800 days.

McPherson is the second Tar Heel to win the Women’s Basketball Rookie of the Week honor this season, after Paulina Paris did so in January. Carolina will be back in action on Thursday at NC State.

 

Featured image via UNC Women’s Basketball on Twitter

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