No longer hesitant to shoot
Hampton guard shakes off early shyness, becomes scoring machine
It’s hard to imagine as Kennedy Harris leads the area in scoring for a second consecutive season, but there was a time when the Hampton High senior was hesitant to shoot the basketball.
That was 2019-20, when she was the only freshman on the Crabbers’ Class 4 state championship team.
“I didn’t want to step on any toes or over any boundaries,” Harris said. “So I just just tried to feel things out because all of the others were older than me.”
That ended in practice one afternoon after the ball swung to an open Harris on the perimeter. As she often did then, Harris looked to pass instead of shoot.
“I stopped practice and said, ‘Kennedy, shoot the ball or go sit down,’ ” Crabbers coach Shanda Bailey said. “I wanted her to get the mindset that she wasn’t just another player, that she could be ‘The Player.’ ”
Harris hasn’t stopped shooting since. She made numerous key shots for the Crabbers in their state championship run and, after losing her sophomore season with the COVID-19 stoppage, has been on fire.
She was the leading scorer in Hampton Roads as a junior at 27 points per game and entered this postseason tied for the area lead with a 31.4 ppg average. Her hot streak continued Tuesday night as she scored 35 points to lead the Crabbers to an 80-22 win over Warwick in the Class 4 Region A Tournament quarterfinals at Hampton.
Harris will look to lead Hampton (20-3) back into the state tournament for the second time in three seasons. The Crabbers will advance to the state quarters should they beat Deep Creek tonight in the region semifinals.
Deep Creek (18-5) advanced to the semifinals with a 60-33 win over No. 3 Grafton.
Harris remembers that practice her freshman season. She too sees it as a turning point in a high school career that has earned her a full scholarship to play at George Mason.
“Coach Bailey told me not to be nervous and just be myself,” Harris said. “I felt so much freedom after that because it feels great when the coach trusts you that much.”
Fans at Hampton who saw Harris make eight 3-pointers against Warwick, six in succession, understand why Bailey encourages her to shoot often.
Harris’ nonstop intensity has also earned her Bailey’s trust.
“Kennedy is a once-in-a-lifetime kid,” Bailey said. “She’s locked in, every day, and she’ll often put on a show in practice because she can handle the ball, attack the basket or score by shooting outside.
“If you try to lock her up, she’ll never back down from the challenge.”
Bailey said she’ll often employ deny defenses in practice like the box-and-1 to deny Harris the ball. They rarely work and Harris was so unstoppable in one recent practice that Bailey pulled some of her players off the court and had her adult assistants guard her.
“Kennedy made 10 straight baskets,” Bailey said. “She made fadeaways with hands in her face, baskets off of the dribble and 3-pointers.
“I’ve never had a player who could score in so many ways.”
Harris, a slender 5-foot-7, does so as consistently as anyone in Hampton Roads recently. Her high this season — 44 points in a recent win over Kecoughtan — is not astronomical, but she almost always scores in the high-20s or low-to-mid-30s.
“I never thought I would be such a high scorer, but my coaches had that as a goal for me,” said Harris, who was joined in double figures Tuesday by Asya Johnson and Jayla Stratton with 10 points each.
“My goal is to win another state championship. That would be amazing, but I’ve told my teammates we’ve got to stay humble. Anything can happen in the playoffs, and I learned last year you can’t take anyone lightly.”
Harris learned that lesson from then-No. 10 seed Deep Creek, which upset the top-seeded Crabbers in the quarterfinals. Hampton won’t overlook the Hornets after seeing them dispatch Bay Rivers District champion Grafton (19-4) with ease.
The nightcap was tied at 4-all when freshman Asia Keels led a 17-point run that moved the Hornets into a 21-4 lead early in the second quarter. The Hornets’ full-court pressure that forced continual turnovers was decisive.
Keels (10 points), Chloe Beddingfield (14), Nalani Simmons (11) and Luann Kemeni (10) led Deep Creek. The Hornets lost to Hampton 54-23 in December. but Bailey expects a tougher game this time.
“I think they’re better,” she said. “They pressure better and handle pressure better. I think both teams are better. We’re better defensively, and that’s what we’ll focus on because we all know everybody can score.”
Taylor Ragland’s game-high 15 points led Grafton.