The Oktaha Lady Tigers are looking to take the next step this basketball season and sophomore Ava Scott might just be the person to help them get there. Scott, who was the team MVP and leading scorer last year with 14 points per game as a freshman, has been on coach Kia Holmes radar for some time.

“I’ve had Ava since elementary school and I kind of knew she would be a special player when she got to the high school level. She’s just really good with the basketball in her hands and on defense she always guards the other team’s best player. I just wish I could get her to be a little more selfish with the ball. I don’t know how many times I’ve told her to shoot the ball more,” chuckled Holmes.

With both parents and an older brother that played basketball, it was probably destined for Ava to take up roundball as well even though she also plays shortstop on the Oktaha softball team. During the summer Ava plays AAU basketball which she feels helps her school game.

“AAU ball is harder than school ball and playing tougher competition just makes me a batter player overall,” said Scott who is also in Spanish Club and student council at Oktaha. “I guess my role model might be Paige Bueckers of Connecticut. She’s really good with the ball and is a leader on her team and my parents are my motivators because they’re always pushing me to be my best and they’re always there when I need them.”

After getting knocked out in the opening round of the area tournament last year, Holmes feels good about the Lady Tigers chances of making a deeper run this year.

“I feel we’re further along at this point than we have been the past few years. We return three key starters, but our freshmen class only has a couple of players, so we won’t be as deep this season. We’ll probably only have 12 players on the roster so early in the season we’ll probably work a little more on conditioning than we have in the past.”