Dannisha Pierce is the most decorated player in St. Thomas University Women’s Basketball history. The double-Bobcat alum graduated in 2013 with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice and came back to finish out her playing career and earn her Master of Science Degree in Elementary Education in 2016.
On the court, Pierce garnered honors in each of her four years as a Bobcat. After an ACL injury in her first year Pierce came back strong making a great first impression collecting Freshmen of the Year and placing on the First-Team All-Conference and helped the team to a Regular Season Championship. In her sophomore season, Dannisha earned her first of three Defensive Player of the Year awards while garnering Second-Team All-Conference honors and helping the team to just their second NAIA National tournament appearance in program history.
In year three as a Bobcat, Pierce just got better, working her way back to First-Team All-Conference, winning co-Defensive Player of the Year, earning Academic All-Conference recognition member, going back-to-back with on regular season champions and making another national tournament appearance.
After finishing her undergraduate studies, Pierce took a year off and then came back with one year left and played as a graduate student. The one year off did not hinder a single bit of her game. In what is one of the most astonishing seasons ever by a student-athlete at St. Thomas, Pierce was named Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year for the third time in her career, First-team All-Conference, All-Defensive team, a Third-Team NAIA All-American, eight-time Conference Player of the Week, two-time National player of the week and led the team back as the regular season champion. The grad finished the job bringing home the tournament championship in front of the home crowd and send the team back to the national tournament.
Along with all these great accomplishments, Dannisha is a member of the elite 1,000-point club and the all-time leader in points for the Sun Conference and St. Thomas with 1,840 in 124 games. Pierce is also the all-time steals leader in the conference and Bobcat history with 388 and is top-10 in the conference for points in a single season, career scoring average, career field goal percentage, career free throw percentage, career rebound average, and career double-doubles.
