Las Positas Star Ashley Hart Can Do It All On The Court

Las Positas College sophomore Ashley Hart is not only scoring a bunch of points this basketball season, but she’s also doing everything else.

The former Millennium High star basically filled up the stat sheet in the Hawks’ 68-51 win over Ohlone Friday, with 24 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and nine steals. She’s ranked No. 3 in the state in scoring at 23.5 a game. Now that’s production.

With the win, a young Las Positas team improved to 1-1 in the Coast-North and 6-9 overall.

Asked of her goals, and Hart put the team first: “My goals? I just want to win.”

Hawks coach Clarence Morgan can only shake his head and smile. He knows he has a rare player in the ranks. Hart’s positive attitude only adds to the equation.

“She’s an extremely nice young lady. I know her father. I knew her pastor at the church, we grew up together,” Morgan says. “She’s a great kid. If I had 10 of those we’d be in business. Just a super young lady.”

Hart, a 5-foot-7 guard, credits her older brother Aaron, a former Millennium guard and captain, with propelling her in basketball. Aaron averaged 10.4 points and 9.3 rebounds over 25 high school games through the 2014-15 season.

“Definitely my brother,” she says. “… I just followed him. He would always after school go out and play with his friends and he would let me come with him, and I’m so thankful for that because I learned how to play with boys. I think that’s what the difference is.”

What separates Hart on the court?

“Just her IQ’s real high,” Morgan says. “She’s really smooth out there, doesn’t really get rattled. She’s fundamentally sound. She can dribble, she can pass, she can shoot, she rebounds – a great athlete. I’m gonna hate losing her. As good as she is on the court, off the court she’s even better.”

Morgan says he thinks Hart can play at the highest level.

“She’s the best player I’ve had since I’ve been here, so D-III, D-II, NAIA, those are all good," he says. "There’s a couple D-I’s that are starting to look at her now, and I think she can play at that level.”

Heck, in three or four years if Morgan sees Hart in the WNBA, “I wouldn’t be surprised,” he adds.

To the present, Hart says the Hawks are beginning to figure things out collectively.

“We’re starting to listen to our coach better,” she says. “He’s telling us exactly what to do to get it done, but we’re having a hard time retaining it, but we’re getting the hang of it.”

Because of her background of playing hoops with boys, Hart knows what to do when a play breaks down – improvise. She can sort things out by playing impromptu basketball.

Hart prefers playing off the ball, but she’s asked to do a lot more than that.

“Unfortunately, we need her on the ball, on the rebounds, playing 1 through 5,” Morgan says. “We put a lot of extra weight on her because we’ve got a lot of freshmen and she has to carry it. She’s done a really good job.”

Hart spent last season adjusting to community college play, a much higher level than she faced in high school. She describes herself as being “very shy in high school. I still am shy. It took me a real long time to develop as a player. I think I had fun, but we weren’t that great in high school.”

Even though she’s seemingly a scoring machine, Hart isn’t hanging on her stats each week.

“I’m just playing. I’m just trying to play hard,” she says.

Morgan loves the fact that Hart does some many things, so willingly. She's a gamer.

“She’s never, ever complained once since she’s been here about anything,” Morgan assures.