Meet Shareka McNeill, the best scorer in college basketball

By Steven J. Gaither

Posted on November 19, 2019

The best scorer in college ball doesn’t play in Division I, and isn’t a man. She’s a 5-6 guard from Charlotte, NC that plays for Virginia Union University.

Her name is Shareka McNeill. The reigning CIAA Player of The Year has picked up right where she left of as a sophomore last season, earning Player of the Week honors for the second week in a row.

McNeill poured in 32 points against California (PA) followed by a 42-point performance versus Palm Beach Atlantic, averaging 37 points and shooting nearly 43% from three in two games to earn her second weekly honor of the season. The junior guard also averaged four steals while totaling five rebounds and two assists, helping the Lady Panthers to a 1-1 record for the week. McNeill leads Division II in scoring at 39.3 points per game and is third overall in the NCAA in scoring behind two Division III women.

The junior guard is a sniper from long-range, connecting on 16 of her 34 attempts from the 3-point line through three games this season.

If you watched her play before, though, this is nothing new. McNeill put on a show in the CIAA Tournament, starting with a CIAA-record tying 59 point performance against Livingstone and culminating in a second-straight title while averaging better than 42 points per game during VUU’s run.

Virginia Union has had lots of great players on both the men’s and women’s side. But the level at which McNeill is currently scoring the ball, she may go down as one of the best in school and CIAA, and that’s saying a lot.

McNeill isn’t the only HBCU star showing out early in the season. Here are a few other players putting up big numbers through mid-November.

• Grambling leads Division I in scoring at 114 ppg

• Hampton’s Jermaine Marrow is second in Division I scoring with 29.7 ppg through three games.

• Jackson State’s Tristan Jarrett is tied for sixth in D1 scoring with 26 ppg.

• West Virginia State’s Glen Abram is third in D2 with 30.5 ppg

• Shaw’s Grayson Kelly is fourth with 29.3 ppg

• Bethune-Cookman’s Cletrell Pope is fourth in the country with 12.5 rebounds per game

• North Carolina Central’s Annissa Rivera leads the nation in rebounding at D1 while Dariauana Lewis’ 14.3 rebounds per game are third in the country

Meet Shareka McNeill, the best scorer in college basketball