Early in the season, Laurence Manning's Ashley Rae Hodge was struggling to find her groove.
The junior was battling a hamstring injury and wasn't consistently finding her shot. After taking a little time to rest, Hodge got her groove back when the Lady Swampcats took part in the District 9 Officials Christmas Tournament last weekend.
Hodge did a little bit of everything, pouring in an average of 23.3 points per game while pulling down 21 rebounds, dishing out nine assists and forcing turnovers with 13 steals. She led LMA to a third-place finish, with their lone loss coming to the eventual champs, SCHSL 5A Division I powerhouse Blythewood. Her performance helped her earn Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week honors after a busy holiday weekend.
"It meant a lot to me because they all got together, and my teammates and family, most people from LMA got together and voted," Hodge said of the support.
Laurence Manning head coach Lisa Ard was proud of the way her junior stepped up against some stiff competition.
"She was in her game," Ard said. "She'd had some trouble with her shot, so I think she got a little bit of rest, got her legs under her. She's been fighting a hamstring injury since the beginning of the season, so I think she's finally starting to get over that. She's just a great shooter. She gets in there for rebounds, she hustles up and down the court, she finds players that are open and gets those assists, gets steals. She's just one of those all-around kids; she can do it all on the basketball court."
The tournament came at the right time for Hodge, as she was able to hit a bit of a reset with District 9 after hitting a cold stretch.
"It's hard to play over break because all you want to do is rest, but it's always a fun tournament," Hodge said. "The past few games, I wasn't 100%, and I felt like I wanted to do better in this tournament since I'd been off some. I just wanted the tournament to go well, and I wanted my teammates and I to do the best we could because we played a few good teams."
Hodge worked hard to find her shot before the start of the tournament, which immediately paid off. She poured in 31 points in their opening win over Manning, but she really felt like her shot clicked into place against Blythewood. She knocked down four threes in the loss despite also playing with a cast on two fingers after jamming them.
"I've been going in the gym and shooting, trying to work to get my shot back on because it's not fun when your shot is off," she said. "In the second game against Blythewood, I shot a little bit more from Lyza Prickelmyer passing it to me because she'd always look for me on the wing to be open. I went to the gym to get my shooting improved because my teammates had confidence in me to make the shots, so I wanted to be there for them."
While Hodge found her shot against Blythewood, LMA was on the wrong side of an 81-34 matchup. Blythewood, who is ranked No. 3 in SCHSL 5A DI, couldn't be stopped from long range, but the Lady 'Cats were determined to bounce back in the third-place game against Timberland. Hodge showed out with 20 points as they took home a 45-37 win despite missing a few players because of illness.
"It's always good to score, but I wanted us to come together as a team and play together for third place," she said. "We didn't get discouraged and didn't let (the loss) persuade how we played or our mindset. Blythewood was a really good team. It wasn't that we played badly; we played well, they were just really tough. We didn't let that game distract us from the next game."
Ard was impressed by the way Hodge rose to the occasion all week, ready to do whatever her team needed to lead them to success. The junior will look to stay hot down the stretch as they gear up for a slate mostly consisting of region action.
"She stepped up," Ard said. "She got the shots she needed, took them with confidence, she drove the ball to the basket with confidence. It was really good to see with us getting ready to start our conference play. That's really encouraging as we get to start that region run.
"She's just one of those kids that you're blessed to have."
More Articles to Read