Another honor for Raleigh's first McDonald's All-American girls basketball player

Neuse Christian senior Izabela Leite Nicoletti was named the N.C. Gatorade Player of the Year in girls basketball on Monday. She's the first Gatorade Player of the Year in any sport to be selected from the small North Raleigh private school.

Nicoletti, a 5-foot-9 shooting guard, has signed with Florida State and is ranked as one of the nation's top 10 high school players. She's the first McDonald's All-American girls basketball player to come from the Triangle, the first Triangle girls basketball player to win the girls basketball Gatorade award since Asia Williams from Hillside did in 2009 and the first to to do so from Wake County.

Nicoletti played the last two years with the Lions, taking them to back-to-back N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 1A title games.

Nicoletti, teammate Izabel DeAngelo Verajao and former teammate Maria Albiero, now at BYU, moved to the Triangle from Brazil in the summer of 2015, hoping that staying in the United States year-round would give them a better opportunity to play college basketball. All three, along with two other Brazilian players who later enrolled at nearby Friendship Christian, played for the Carolina Waves basketball program and have played in Brazil's U16 and U14 national programs.

Neuse Christian went 22-5 this year and 27-1 last year while winning the 2017 National Christian Schools Athletic Association title.

Nicoletti averaged 19.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game this season. She also has a 3.79 GPA.

This story was originally published March 19, 2018 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Another honor for Raleigh's first McDonald's All-American girls basketball player."