Decatur High Sharpshooter Takes Aim at the History Books

Because of her superior athletic talents and propensity for scoring the basketball, Decatur High School junior shooting guard wears a larger-than-life bull’s eye target on her jersey.

However, while the opposition attempts to take aim at her, Alford continues to be a skilled sharpshooter with the ball, hitting shots with pinpoint precision.

Alford has flooded the stat sheet with an influx of eye-popping numbers. Her totals include averaging 26.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 6.1 steals and 3.4 assists per game. This is a vast improvement from last season when she averaged nine points per game.

“She’s a hard-nosed competitor," said Decatur High School's Bill Roberts, head coach of the girl's varsity basketball team. "I've never seen a player like her in the 15 years that I’ve been coaching that has that type of fire and tenacity inside her."

Recently, she added her name to the lure of Decatur basketball when she joined the 1,000-point club in a victory over . Alford needed 46 points to reach the milestone and she dropped 48 in the winning effort.

“It felt really good," Alford said. "We got to the fourth quarter and Coach Roberts said I need six more points to reach the mark. My teammates were saying ‘go Queen, go Queen’ and I got it done. It means a lot because I’ve worked really hard and it’s starting to pay off. In my past, people told me that you’ll never get 1,000 points. I’m happy because that pushed me to reach this milestone.”

Alford combines a balanced mixture of athleticism and sheer will to succeed on the basketball court. In addition to her picturesque form and shooting stroke, she’s a track star blessed with blazing speed and outruns her opponents to create shot opportunities.

These talents have not gone unnoticed by several college programs. Alford’s mailbox is already stuffed with letters from scouts although she’s only a junior in high school.

Nevertheless, while colleges watch her performance, Alford has her eyes glued on making a successful run in the Class AA, Region 6-A Tournament and leading her team to the state playoffs.

“We’ve been working really hard and we’ve had this mindset since the summer of how we want to end this year. We want to go strong and hard all the way to the end,” she said.

Decatur closed out the 2010-11 regular season at home Friday versus Clarkston. The team finished third in Class AA, Region 6-A and open the Region 6 tournament Monday at 7 p.m. at Maynard Jackson High School.