This season has been a slog for senior point guard Kiara Fisher, who is playing through cartilage tearing in her left knee, in addition to a strained calf and Achilles.
The tears in her left knee–the same knee she also had ACL surgery on during high school–have caused her to wear a black knee brace every time she takes the court. These battle scars are nothing new for Fisher, as she has confronted adverse circumstances nearly every step of the way during her basketball career.
Early in high school, she suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery and forced her to miss an entire season. As a junior in high school, she suffered the aforementioned ACL tear. After her freshman year at Syracuse, Fisher and 10 other players transferred out of the program when their head coach became embroiled in allegations of misconduct.
In late January of her breakout sophomore year at Marist, Fisher injured her shoulder again and missed the remainder of the year. Now, in her senior season, Fisher has missed 10 contests as she’s battled through her latest round of injuries.
“I think [the adversity] has just made me stronger overall, mentally and physically. It’s taught me not to give up and to keep pushing and just have faith,” said Fisher.
The dropoff in efficiency that Fisher has experienced as a result of playing through her latest injuries has been difficult to ignore. Overall, her FG% has dropped from 40% a year ago to just 28% this season. After leading her team in 3PT% over the past two seasons, Fisher’s shooting from deep has plummeted from 33% a year ago to under 20% this season.
While Fisher led her team by averaging 12.3 PPG as a sophomore and ranked eighth in the MAAC conference with 13.8 PPG in 2022-23, she no longer ranks in the top 20 and is scoring just 9.4 PPG. The pesky point guard has led her team in steals per game for three years running, but her team-high 1.4 steals per game this season trails the 2.3 steals she averaged in 2021-22 by a significant margin.
“It’s been a really tough season for me and it’s senior year,” she said.
One area of her game that has skyrocketed is her assist numbers. After averaging under four assists over the past two seasons, she has distributed 5.2 dimes per game in 2023-24, which would lead the MAAC by a wide margin had she played enough games to qualify for the leaderboard; no other qualified player is averaging more than 4.7 assists.
“When I feel good, that’s usually when I can do more. I’m on all sides of the floor; defense, offense, rebounding, assists,” said Fisher. “But when I don’t feel great, I try to just put my team in the best position that I can for them to put the ball in the basket, and then try to do my best on defense. I’d say that I become more of a pass-first point guard on the days that I’m not feeling good.”
One of the primary motivating factors spurring Fisher onward through the discomfort and altered playing style is her desire to perform for her head coach, Erin Doughty. Fisher noted that Doughty has been a consistent presence over the past few years through her numerous trials, which keeps her motivated to fight onward while Doughty takes the helm at head coach.
“Me and coach Erin have a relationship that I don’t think I’ve ever had with a coach, and not a lot of players get that,” said Fisher. “She makes sure I’m good no matter where I am. It’s like a mother-daughter relationship, she’s like my second mom. My mom is not out here, so I’m going to coach Erin for anything.”
From Doughty’s perspective, despite her starting point guard’s physical limitations, she believes Fisher still positively impacts the team in multiple ways. Doughty cited Fisher’s mentorship of the younger guards on the team, such as freshman Julia Corsentino, as being invaluable to the program. In Doughty’s eyes, Fisher is a player who has her teammate’s backs when things become tense on the floor.
While Fisher has by and large pushed through her discomfort, Doughty did acknowledge that she has made sure to listen to her body and be vocal about when she needs rest. On the whole, Doughty believes the unpredictability of this season has been a new factor for Fisher to grapple with.
“This year’s probably been harder than the others because, when you have surgery, you’re out for six months and then you’re back. To have these nagging ones that keep resurfacing, I think, is really hard for her,” said Doughty.
With Fisher playing out the string of her senior year, she highlighted two of her teammates who have been there for so much of her basketball journey. She cited her lifelong basketball relationship with star senior forward Zaria Shazer as being a key component to her career – the two grew up playing AAU and high school basketball together in Elmira, N.Y. – and also mentioned graduate student center Maeve Donnelly, who Fisher and Shazer began playing with in eighth grade.
“[Donnelly’s] season fell short because of her injury. She’s been very good in helping me get through because she couldn’t get through, so it even motivates me more to keep pushing,” said Fisher.
With the vast majority of Fisher’s time as a Red Fox now in the rearview mirror, she expressed gratitude for her time in Poughkeepsie. Fisher relished the opportunity to play for former head coach Brian Giorgis, who she described as a “legend” and had numerous standout performances for, most notably a program-record 44-point outburst last January.
“It’s been a lot of highs and lows, but I’m thankful for it all,” said Fisher.
Edited by Ben Leeds and Dan Aulbach
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo; Photos from Marist Athletics
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