For the second year in a row, Boston College women’s basketball star Dontavia Waggoner is one of our two Most Improved Players of the Year. Waggoner transferred to Boston College for her sophomore season, and has put in the work every season to continue improving all aspects of her game. This year, she beat out fellow nominees (and fellow women’s basketball players) Kayla Lezama and T’Yana Todd to earn this honor.
Waggoner started all 33 games for BC after missing a chunk of last season due to injury, so her stats increases are impacted by the fact that she saw more playing time. However, between this season and last season she increased her rebounds from 176 to 201, her assists from 36 to 51, and her points from 317 to 425. Waggoner also ended this season with 99 steals, setting a program record for most steals in a single season.
Where her improvement was unaffected by seeing more minutes was her accuracy – last season, Waggoner shot 40.5% from the floor, and this season she shot 44.4%. Waggoner also tightened up her defensive game while still remaining quick and aggressive. Last season she averaged 2.6 turnovers per game, and this year she averaged 2.1 turnovers per game.
At the conclusion of this season, Waggoner announced that she will be returning to BC for a graduate year, so we look forward to seeing how she continues to grow her game!