CHICAGO (March 13, 2014) — In its 29th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Asia Durr of St. Pius X Catholic High School as its 2013-14 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.
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 junior guard led the Golden Lions to a 30-3 record and a second consecutive Class AAA state championship this past season. The state’s 2014 Miss Basketball selection as named by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, Durr averaged 24.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.7 assists per game. She tallied 23 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals in a 48-45, title-clinching win over Buford, capturing Class AAA state title game Most Valuable Player honors for a second straight season. A member of the 2013 USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team, she averaged 18.4 points per contest during Team USA’s gold medal run at the 2013 FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women this past summer.
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, as part of the Shoes for Haiti campaign and on behalf of the Destiny World Church’s homeless ministry as well as the Meals on Wheels Association of America.
“What can she not do?” said Tamara Chavis, head coach of rival Blessed Trinity Catholic High. “She can dribble right or left, shoot from anywhere, rebound—and I mean go up and get it—slash like Dwyane Wade and convert the ‘And-one’ play. I don’t know how else to say she is more than a complete package.”
Durr will begin her senior year of high school 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.
Durr joins recent 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, Collins Hill) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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