In recent years at Highland "Scots Pride" hasn't included girl's basketball. But this year, with the team riding a 13 game winning streak, something's changed.
"We kind of have a bullseye on our back now instead of you know everybody shooting for us," said Mike Gibson, whose team is 20-5 (6-0 SEYL) in his first year at Highland.
"It's just something different over the past couple years. Never had anything like it," said junior Octavia Croney. Going 6-0 in league will do that. While Croney has helped the Scots all year, you won't hear any of that from her.
"She's not the kind of girl that will talk about herself. She'll come out on the court and let her play talk about it," said Gibson.
And that play stands out from the moment she picks up the ball. While she has the ability to drive and score, plus dish it out to teammates, her coach is most impressed with her anticipation and her ability to pick out where the ball is going on defense. Averaging 6.4 steals per game she's leading the Central Section in steals.
"She's had ten double doubles and...three triple doubles and that's kind of unheard of in girls basketball nowadays," said Gibson.
While many athletes might be bragging about those numbers at school, Octavia didn't even know about it until she was told.
"I try not to look at the stats because to me stats are just an individual thing and i look at it as a team effort. So just the win that counts," she said.
It's behind that mentality that she will hope to lead the Scots to their first league title in almost 20 years and make a chase for a valley title. Highland will need to beat North and Foothill to finish undefeated in league play. They take on the Stars tonight at 6:30.
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