Why defending Sarah Strong, the nation’s top prep girls basketball player, is often futile
Sarah Strong’s presence on Grace Christian of Sanford’s team requires the opponents’ defense to attempt to force the Crusaders to make plays on the perimeter first.
Standing 6-2 and the daughter of two Division I basketball players, her reputation as the nation’s top-ranked girls basketball player forces such decisions.
Two minutes, 10 seconds into Grace Christian’s first game in the John Wall Holiday Invitational (Frances Pulley Bracket) Friday against South Mecklenburg, Strong, positioned several steps behind the top of the key, drained a 3-pointer.
Conventional wisdom was no more, and that left little no doubt about what would become a 71-21 Crusaders win, including a running clock for much of the second half. Wisdom and doubt were gone before Strong banked home her second 3-pointer from essentially the same spot at the first quarter’s 4:30 mark.
A packed gymnasium in William Peace University’s Hermann Athletic Center watched attentively as Strong tallied at least a two-count in five statistical categories – 11 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, three steals, two blocks – in fewer than 22 minutes of court time. The lone zero on Strong’s statistics line represented how many fouls she committed.
Strong, who, still, is contemplating at where she’ll play college basketball, is the leader of North Carolina’s generational girls’ basketball class of 2024. Her father, Danny Strong, played basketball at N.C. State and her mother, Allison Feaster, played at Harvard and now works as the Boston Celtics’ vice president of team operations and organizational growth.
While she possesses incredible basketball genes, she’s not given to scoring flashiness. The flashiest thing Strong did Friday was a one-handed rebound and pass (from the baseline) to teammate Icyss Storm for a layup approximately 90 seconds into the third quarter.
That didn’t mean spectators and college coaches alike had plenty of picks for Strong’s favorite plays Friday.
How about with 6:11 left in the second quarter, when Strong assisting and Storm scoring on a high-low play? On Grace Christian’s next offensive sequence, Strong’s pass set up a 3-pointer by Isa Roman.
Fifteen seconds into the third quarter, Strong established high post position, received a pass and kept the basketball high before pivoting and delivering a bounce pass to a baseline cutting Storm for a layup. Strong, working from left of the free throw line extended, and Storm completed a similar play with the same result at the third period’s 3:13 mark.
Strong’s lack of flashiness yielded 61 wins and two N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association (NCISAA) state championships (one 1A, one 2A) among the Crusaders’ preceding two seasons. Grace Christian is undefeated through 14 starts this season, including out-of-state wins over schools from Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
When an elite player shares her abilities without flashiness to help her team to higher ground, what, if anything, is flashier than that? With North Carolina’s reigning Ms. Basketball and Gatorade Player Of The Year still competing, it is challenging to articulate as Strong of a case.