(by Don Meador)
Coaches from across Region 4 have selected Allen County-Scottsville junior Avery Morris as the Region 4 Player-of-the-Year. Morris’ selection caps an extraordinary day for the Lady Patriot basketball team. Earlier, Morris’ teammate, Debora Patrick, was selected as the Region 4 Player of the Year by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches. The KABC award selects seniors only while Region 4 coaches vote for players from all grade levels.
The honor for Morris highlights a record-breaking season---a year in which she has helped AC-S to a 20-7 record. Morris completed her fifth regular season as a Lady Patriot averaging 27.7 points per game---a mark that has her among the state’s top scorers. Morris has scored 720 points this year, the most points in an AC-S season in the 52-year history of the program. This week, Morris surpassed Morgan Rich as the all-time leading scorer for the Lady Patriots. She closes the regular season with a career total of 2,479 points in 133 games---an average of 18.6 points per game.
This season, Morris scored a school-record 54 points against Johnson Central in the 2A Championships’ quarterfinals. In that game, Morris went 27-31 at the foul line with five of her 11 field goals being 3-pointers. She has scored 30 or more points 10 times and 20 or more points in 22 of the 26 games she has played in. From the field, Morris has made 235 of her 464 shots from the floor (50.6%) including 60 3-pointers in 152 shots (39.5%) from beyond the arch. At the foul line, Morris has sunk 190 of 225 free throws for an 84.4 percent mark.
Morris has 129 steals for the season, an average of five steals per game. Her numbers include an 11-steal night and a 10-steal effort. She also averages 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
The selection by the regional coaches as POY is the third year Morris has been an All-Region 1st Team selection. Morris’s first honor came on the heels of a freshman season when she averaged 20.5 points per game. As a sophomore, she scored an average of 23.5 points to earn a spot on the All-Region 1st time.
Morris---a 2027 Miss Basketball candidate--is joined on the All-Region 1st Team by Shelby Byrd (Barren County), Jozie Allen (Metcalfe County), Allye Pennington (Franklin-Simpson), and Madi Cooksey (Cumberland County). Players on the 2nd Team are Anzlee Hendrix (Greenwood), Sarah Thompson (Monroe County), Aniyah Coffey (Russell County), Kloie Smith (Franklin-Simpson), and Brenley Adler (Logan County). Selections to the 3rd Team are Brelynn Wardlow (Warren East), Ansley Turner (Monroe County), Addy Slagle (Barren County), Debora Patrick (AC-S), and Bree Jolly. Barren County coach Piper Lindsey was chosen by the region coaches as the Coach of the Year.