Akers does it all for Tigerettes

By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — Some people can do it all. McKenzie Akers is one of those people on the basketball court.
The junior point guard for Princeton Senior High School recorded a rare triple-double to help the Tigerettes beat Lincoln County 97-34 last Wednesday and end 2011 with a perfect 7-0 record.
Her intangible contributions to the Princeton team, plus her Dec. 28 game totals of 28 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals, have earned Akers the Pocahontas Coal Association-Bluefield Daily Telegraph Player of the Week honor for Week 5.
“I try to play hard every game. I want to win,” Akers said on Tuesday afternoon. That was especially the case last Wednesday at the Ralph Ball Court in Princeton.
“Everybody came out excited,” she said. “We had a big crowd, we were on our home court, and we wanted to be undefeated to end 2011.”
Her coach, Debbie Ball, said, “She’s really the concrete of our offense. It’s not that we depend on her scoring as much as it is her getting the ball to other players.”
“It worked out that she played her better game against Lincoln County. She hit the open players, and that helped her get open herself. If you depend on one player for your scoring the other team can do things to shut her down.”
Akers’ dozen rebounds stood out for Ball. “It’s kind of strange when your point guard is your leading rebounder,” she said.
“She mainly got them on defense. A point guard gets rebounds on defense. On offense, that would be really unusual, because your point guard has to be ready to get back down the floor on defense.”
When Akers was asked to explain the rebounding total, she was a bit mystified herself.
“I’m never used to getting rebounds,” she said. “I just wanted to get the ball, and wanted to do everything I could to win, I guess.”
Akers played AAU ball last summer and is always working to improve her skills, Ball said. Ball has noticed that her shot selection has improved.
“What’s so good about this year is that she’s shooting around 48 percent from the floor overall,” Ball said. “That by itself is pretty good. She has grown as a player from last year. She’s actually taking better shots than what she did last year. And that is from shooting more from the outside than inside. Shooting that well from outside is pretty hard to do.”
Akers is averaging 22 points per game. Her big night last week came after a season low of 14 points — making one field goal and 12 foul shots — in a win over PikeView on Dec. 22.
On Wednesday she doubled that point total, and her on-the-court direction helped three other Tigerettes score 12 or more points — Hannah Preservati, Marissa Mullins and Kendria Perkins.
But it’s not about individual statistics, as both Akers and Ball quickly affirmed.
“I guess what people don’t really realize is that actually she’s a cheerleader for the rest of the team,” Ball said. “She wants everybody to do well. She’s always pushing them in practice, encouraging them to do their best. You can’t have a team without a player doing that.”
She added, “This team gets along better as a group. Their main goal is to get somewhere as a team and not so much individually.”
Akers said, “I couldn’t do anything I do without my teammates. When you play team ball, it wins more games.”
Ball said that the team looks to Akers as a leader on the court. The coach said, “You have one or two on the floor who are really your floor generals while you’re out there on the floor.”
Akers said, “My teammates are relying on me more and I hope I can live up to that standard. ... As a point guard, you’re the leader on the floor and the coach on the floor. It’s funny, sometimes. I’m trying to do my best but Coach Ball says you can do better.
“She encourages me to do nothing but the best. She’s very hard on me, and I get frustrated at times, but in the back of my mind I know that it’s because she wants me to do my best and to be better in the future.”
Being the scoring leader on a team with a perfect record produces a special burden, Akers said. “I feel like sometimes people are out to get me, but I’ve got to step up to the challenge and play my game,” she said.
Akers said that Princeton’s 7-0 start has been “unbelievable.” She said, “We want to go to states like my sister [Tesla] did. We all want to work hard and go to states before we leave high school.”
The Tigerettes will be on the road to the Kanawha Valley this evening to play MSAC opponent Nitro, “if the weather cooperates,” Akers said. She said the keys to coming out with win No. 8 against the 2-3 Wildcats will be little different from every other foe.
“Play team ball,” Akers said. “Go out to win every night and not take any team lightly.”
• • •
Candace Brown of Summers County, who won the player of the week award for the Dec. 5-11 span of games, crossed the 1,000-point plateau of her career on Dec. 31 when the Bobcats beat Chapmanville.
She scored 46 of her team’s 73 points, almost matching the Tigers’ team total of 49, and added 13 rebounds and eight steals.
The website Maxpreps.com lists her as leading the nation in points per game (36.3) among prep girls players reported to the site.
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com

Honorable mention
Bland County (1-0) — defeated Rural Retreat 49-32. Paige Brinkley 13 points; Jessie Blessing 7 points, 2 steals; Alison Morgan 4 points 10 rebounds, 3 assists.
Bluefield (1-0) — defeated Wyoming East 64-37. Shelia Hopkins 18 points; Dazia Edwards 19 points; Khadijah Brown 10 points.
PikeView (1-1) — defeated Nicholas County 61-47. Danielle Compton 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 steals; Jennifer Taylor 12 points; Laura Hill 9 points; Samantha Wood 8 points, 5 steals, 4 assists; Hope Nester 5 points, 3 rebounds. Defeated Frankfort 56-43. Compton 16 points, 14 rebounds; Nester 15 points, 2 assists, 10 steals; Taylor 11 points.
Princeton (1-0) — defeated Lincoln County 97-34. Hannah Preservati 21 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals; Marissa Mullins 15 points, 4 assists; Kendria Perkins 12 points, 7 rebounds.
River View (0-1) — lost to Mingo Central 44-24. Samantha Matney 14 points; Chelsea Dobbs 4 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks; Tara Bowles 3 points, 8 rebounds.