ATLANTA, Ga. – Saint Joseph's College senior point guard Kelsi McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) is one of 30 players to earn honorable mention status on the 2019 NCAA Division III All-American squads, announced Thursday, March 14, by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
McNamara, the first player in program history to earn WBCA All-America honors, adds to her growing list of postseason accolades, as the senior has garnered GNAC Player of the Year, NEWBA Player of the Year, MWBCA Player of the Year, First Team All-Conference, D3Hoops.com First Team All-Northeast, NEWBA First Team All-Region, and Google Cloud Third Team Academic All-America® honors since the Monks' season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on March 2nd.
She is the first SJC women's basketball player to be tabbed as an All-American since Stacey Gelinas '02 and current Associate Head Coach Sue Picard '02 earned Kodak NAIA District 8 Honorable Mention All-America honors in 2001.
McNamara has also been selected to play in the 2019 Beyond Sports/WBCA Senior All-Star Game, which features the top 20 NCAA DIII seniors from around the nation, and the NEWBA Senior All-Star Classic, which showcases the best seniors in the New England Region. The Beyond Sports/WBCA Senior All-Star Game will be played at the Cregger Center on the campus of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, on March 16 immediately preceding the NCAA Division III women's basketball national championship game. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. ET.
McNamara claims the national honor after averaging 21.2 points, 6.7 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 43.9% (207-472) from the field, 37.5% (93-248) from three-point range, and 88.4% (129-146) from the free-throw line during her senior season. She ranks second in NCAA DIII Women's Basketball in assists (200), third in three-pointers made (93), fourth in points (636), fifth in assists average, sixth in field goals made (207), free-throw percentage, and three-point attempts (248), and ninth in scoring average.
Incredibly, she is just the second NCAA DIII Women's Basketball player to register at least 200 field goals made and 200 assists in the same season and first since former Christopher-Newport standout Karen Barefoot tallied 273 assists and made 205 field goals during the 1993-94 campaign.
During her senior season McNamara eclipsed the Monks' career records for points (2,067), assists (621), three-pointers made (327) and attempted (856), and field goal attempts (1,660). She also moved up the SJC career leaderboard in games (118, 2nd), field goals made (677, 2nd), free throws made (386, 2nd), assists average (5.3, 2nd), free throw percentage (83.5%, 3rd), scoring average (17.5, 3rd), three-point percentage (38.2%, 4th), free throws attempted (462, 6th), and steals (204, 9th).
This winter the two-time Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Player of the Year established new SJC single-season records for three-pointers made and attempted, points, and assists and became the first St. Joe's player to average over 20 points per game since the 1994-95 season when Danielle Bouchard '95 netted 22.2 PPG.
McNamara capped her senior campaign as the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball active leader in three-pointers made and attempted and is ranked second in assists, third in games and points, fifth in assists average and field goal attempts, sixth in three-pointers per game (2.77), seventh in field goals made and three-point attempts per game (7.25), 10th in free throw percentage, 11th in free throws made, and 14th in scoring average.
Under the watch of 26th-year Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83 this season, Saint Joseph's went 28-2 overall – including a 12-0 mark in conference play – en route to earning the top seed in the GNAC Tournament for the fourth-consecutive year. The Monks cruised past Johnson & Wales and Suffolk in the first two rounds of the tourney before suffering a 65-64 upset at the hands of Emmanuel in the GNAC Championship on February 23rd.
Ranked in the top 10 nationally in the WBCA and D3Hoops.com polls and fourth in the NCAA DIII Regional rankings, Saint Joseph's earned the program's first-ever at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. The Monks faced MIT in the opening round of the national tourney and defeated the Engineers, 68-61, before falling to pod-host Ithaca College, 74-63, the following day.
The loss signaled the end of collegiate basketball for the Monks' four seniors: Emily Benway (Rochester, N.H.), Julia Champagne (Brunswick, Maine), McNamara, and Hannah Marks(Waldoboro, Maine). With the 2019 class on the court, St. Joe's posted a 103-15 (.873) overall record – the most victories by a senior class in program history - with a 53-2 (.964) mark in conference play, three GNAC Championships, and four NCAA Tournament appearances.