Well, no shock here! Just one year removed from winning A-10 Rookie of the Year, Nicole Cardaño-Hillary has won Atlantic 10 Player of the Year! This is the second-consecutive season the honor has gone to a Patriots, as last year, Natalie Butler took home the conference’s top honor. Nikki is also just the second Patriot ever to be named First-Team All-Atlantic 10, along with of course Butler last season as well.
.@MasonWBB’s Nicole Cardaño-Hillary led the league in scoring at 20.4 points per game. She is the second consecutive George Mason player to be named #A10WBB Player of the Year following Natalie Butler, the 2018 award winner: https://t.co/fEjNh9VqM3 pic.twitter.com/L88fgOdYkH
— A-10 Women's Hoops (@A10WBB) March 7, 2019
Nicole had a career season in her Sophomore campaign, averaging 20.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.1 steals per game. In addition, she shot 38% from the field, 29% from three, and 75% from the foul line. This season, she lead the A-10 is steals with 65 total on the season. She eclipsed 1,000 career points in the Patriots game at Saint Louis this year, and ends this season with 1,218 career points, which is already 13th on the all-time scoring list at Mason. She set a career-high in points this season against George Washington, dropping 37 points on the Colonials, completely out-scoring GW in the first half.
Nicole Cardaño-Hillary, in addition to leading the Atlantic 10 in scoring, she ranks 16th in the nation in points, again, with 20.4 per game. She scored 613 points this season, which was the 10th most in the nation as well. Nicole scored more points this season than Louisville’s Asia Durr (600), Napheesa Collier from UConn (605) and Katie Lou Samuelson (547). That is some elite company.
Also receiving conference honors was Sarah Kaminski, who made the All-Academic team.
