CHICAGO — In its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, has announced Asia Durr of St. Pius X Catholic High School as its 2014-15 Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Durr is the first Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from St. Pius X Catholic High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court, distinguishes Durr as Georgia’s best high school girls basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award announced in March, Durr joins an elite alumni association of past state girls basketball award-winners, including Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Diana Taurasi (1998-99 & 1999-00, Don Antonio Lugo HS, Calif.), Maya Moore (2005-06 Collins Hill HS, Ga.), Rashanda McCants (2004-05, Asheville HS, N.C.), Shyra Ely (1999-00, Ben Davis HS, Ind.) and Lisa Leslie (1988-89, Morningside HS, Calif.).
The 5-foot-10 senior guard averaged 30.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game this past season, leading the Golden Lions (27-4) to the Class AAAA state quarterfinals. The state’s returning Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year, Durr shot 51.3 percent from the field, 45.6 percent from 3-point range and 83.5 percent from the free throw line. As a starter during the USA Basketball Women’s U17 National Team’s unbeaten gold-medal run at the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship this past summer, Durr averaged 13.4 points, 3.4 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 23 minutes per contest. A McDonald’s All-American Game, Jordan Brand Classic and WBCA High School All-America Team selection, she led Saint Pius X to back-to-back Class AAA state championships as a sophomore and junior.
Durr has maintained a B average in the classroom. In addition to writing letters to U.S. troops as part of the Works of Mercy Service Program, she has volunteered locally at a food pantry, at Destiny World Church’s homeless ministry, on behalf of the Meals on Wheels Association of America and as part of the Shoes for Haiti campaign.
“She displayed everything you would look for in a great player,” said Harlen Graham, head coach of rival Grady High. “She passes, shoots and makes everyone around her better. She has the total package. She’s the best player I have ever seen in girls’ basketball.”
Durr has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at the University of Louisville this fall.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
Two-time winner Durr joins Gatorade Georgia Girls Basketball Players of the Year Lexie Brown (2012-13, North Gwinnett High School), Allisha Gray (2011-12, Washington County High School), Diamond DeShields (2010-11, Norcross High School), Kayla Lewis (2009-10, Southwest DeKalb), Anne Marie Armstrong (2008-09, Wesleyan School), Alicia Manning (2007-08, Etowah), and Maya Moore (2006–07 & 2005-06, Collins Hill) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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