By Rob Patrick
With her passing, scoring, ball-handling and defense, Bryant Lady Hornets senior Alana Morris can fill up a stat sheet. And that ability has helped give her the opportunity to fill up another sheet, one that secures her a scholarship to continue her education and her basketball career in college.
On Thursday, Nov. 12, Morris officially signed with Tennessee State University of Nashville, Tenn., next fall.[more]
Morris chose Tennessee State over a number of other schools including, she said, “ASU, UCA, most of the schools from here, Missouri State, Wichita State and Valdosta State.”
“It’s all about the academics,” added Lady Hornets head coach Blake Condley. “They’ve got a tremendous engineering program there.”
Morris is planning to study architectural engineering, specifically.
“My mom really helped me,” she said. “We went on a lot of visits. And, of course, my AAU coaches helped. And, like Coach Condley said, just my degree is what I was looking for. Tennessee State had it. The people are really nice and I really like their honors program. I really liked the area.”
“They’re getting a girl that causes match-up problems,” Condley said of Morris and the Tennessee State basketball team. “She handles the ball so well that you feel like you have to have a guard on her but she’s so strong and can do so well around the basket, you feel like you need more of a forward type on her.
“They’re getting a young lady that sees the floor very well, can pass and distribute and put girls in a position to score,” he added. “But I think the best thing about Alana is her personality and the way she carries herself. She’s a joy to have on the team. She’s not going to stir up problems. She’s going to do whatever I, as a coach, ask of her. Whatever can help her teammates be better, she’s going to try to do it. I just feel like she’s the ultimate team player.”
Morris transferred to Bryant from Pulaski Heights Middle School before her freshman year.
“She and her mom had lived here in Bryant even before she started coming to school here,” Condley noted. “They heard good things about the District and they decided to give it a try.”
Morris augmented an already talented group as a freshman and helped the team earn a division championship in the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference with a 25-3 record. They were upset in the conference tournament finals by Mount St. Mary’s.
As sophomores, that group helped the struggling Lady Hornets program to a 10-1 start in 2007-08, only to have the floor drop out from under them during their conference season, finishing 10-16.
But last year, they sparked the team to a return to the State Tournament and they hope to build on that this season.
“Hopefully, we’ll make it back to State and get further than we did last year,” Morris said.
She added that it’s good to get the signing taken care of before the season begins.
“It’s a relief,” she said. “No more phone calls. I need to stay focused. There are still areas that I need to work on as far as shooting and ball-handling.”
Still working to get better — now that’s got to be music to the ears of Condley and TSU Lady Tigers coach Tracee Wells.
