By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
WILLIAMSTON — Last year the numbers were impressive; this year they were just downright ridiculous.
They were the kind of stats people would rack up playing basketball on Xbox or PlayStation, trying to juice their favorite player’s numbers so they could lead the league.
However, Katie Paschal’s numbers were real, and will likely increase next season.
Williamston’s shooting guard averaged a cartoonish 32.7 points per game this year, along with six rebounds, five steals and three assists a night — all of which were team-highs.
And the junior’s 32.7 points per game was tops in the state, and made her the fourth-highest scorer in the country, according to Maxpreps.com.
More impressively, the future East Carolina Lady Pirate led her team to a 23-2 record, which in turn led Paschal to her second straight Washington Daily News Female Player of the Year honor.
While all the super-sized stats and awards are nice, if you spent more than five minutes with Paschal you could tell that she would trade it all in for just one state title.
Two seasons ago, the Tigers made a lengthy playoff push thanks to the help of Paschal, and two talented post players in Equalia Vines and Presley Roberson. This year, Vines transferred to Bertie High School, while Roberson graduated, leaving a hole in the post.
The absence of any true bigs placed even more of the scoring burden on Paschal, hence the rise in scoring average.
Despite scoring half the team’s points this season and making NCPreps.com’s all-state team for the last two years, Paschal continues to obsessively work on her game like she is the 12th girl on the bench.
Heading into the 2008-09 season, Paschal spent the summer playing for the Boo Williams AAU team — a powerhouse squad based in Virginia. The team traveled all over the country and showcased their talent against some of the top female prep players in America, in front of coaches and scouts from the nation’s most prestigious universities.
Paschal’s team finished second in the nation and the experience helped her improve her game. The most significant area of refinement came on the defensive end, where the junior harassed ball carriers and generated five steals per game.
Averaging 32.7 points per night tends to overshadow everything else that she contributes on the court, but roughly a third of those points stemmed from the work she put in on the defensive end.
However, being overlooked as a top defensive player doesn’t bother Paschal.
Paschal works just as hard in the classroom, where her 4.37 GPA has her ranked second amongst Williamston’s 137 juniors. However, once school is out, it’s all about training for the 2009-10 season.