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HAMPTON — Glance at Kennedy Harris’ area-leading scoring average of 31.4 points this season and you’d be right to think there is some selfishness to her game.
Among the times Hampton High coach Shanda Bailey felt Harris showed too little “me” for her team was the start of the Crabbers’ 75-63 win over Pulaski County in the Class 4 state championship game. Unusually, four Crabbers scored first-quarter baskets before Harris.
“I was trying to get everyone involved to see how they’d play, and trying to see how the other team played,” Harris said.
The feeling-out process ended when Bailey and others reminded Harris “we’ve got a state championship to win.” Harris said, “I couldn’t miss after that.”
That was almost literally true a Harris made 9 of 11 field-goal attempts from late in the first quarter to halftime, spotting the Crabbers a 20-point lead at intermission. When the Cougars sliced the margin to five points with four minutes remaining, Harris responded with a basket and 8 of 8 free throws in the championship-clinching 14-7 run to finish with 35 points.
The performance clinched All-Tidewater Girls Basketball Player of the Year honors for Harris in a close call with Zakiya Stephenson, the star of Princess Anne’s Class 5 state championship team. Harris bracketed a six-game postseason, in which she averaged 29.5 points, with 35-point games, and never scored fewer than 20 in between.
“I was ready for the moment,” said Harris, a 5-foot-7 senior and George Mason recruit who was the key reserve on the Crabbers’ 2020 state co-champions as a freshman. “I thought about how it was my final game in high school and I wanted to put on a show and finish strong.”
Bailey calls Harris “the best player I’ve ever coached, a player every coach dreams of, because I never had to coach her effort.” She adds that Harris’ versatility made her capable of putting on a show any night.
“We’ve had some really good girls come through the program and some could put on shooting clinics,” Bailey said. “But Kennedy can put on a shooting clinic and create her own shots off of the dribble.
“I’m so happy she finished with a highlight game because teams didn’t just want to beat Hampton — they wanted to beat Kennedy. Kids don’t realize it now, but they’ll still be talking about what they did in high school in 10 or 15 years.”
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Harris is already banking memories. They include a key pull-up jumper late in the state semifinal win over defending Class 4 champion King’s Fork.
She’ll never forget the bus ride home from Richmond after the state championship.
“We celebrated by making TikTok [videos] dancing [in the aisles] and showing off the trophy,” Harris said. “I’ll miss everything about playing for Hampton — my coaches and helping my teammates get better.
“That bus ride is a great memory.”
Marty O’Brien, 757-247-4963, mjobrien@dailypress.com. Twitter @MartyOBrienDP
All-Tidewater Girls Basketball Players of the Year
2023 – Kennedy Harris, Hampton
2022 – Amari Smith, Menchville
2021 – No award given because of pandemic-shortened season
2020 – Aziaha James, Princess Anne
2019 – Aziaha James, Princess Anne
2018 – Brianna Jackson, Princess Anne
2017 – Xaria Wiggins, Princess Anne
2016 – Gadvia Hubbard, Princess Anne
2015 – Gadiva Hubbard, Princess Anne
2014 – Gadiva Hubbard, Princess Anne
2013 – Feyonda Fitzgerald, Lake Taylor
2012 – Galaisha Goodhope, Princess Anne
2011 – Elizabeth Williams, Princess Anne
2010 – Elizabeth Williams, Princess Anne
2009 – Sugar Rodgers, King’s Fork
2008 – She’la White, Norfolk Collegiate
2007 – Kim Rodgers, Princess Anne
2006 – Kim Rodgers, Princess Anne
2005 – Jazzmin Walters, Lake Taylor
2004 – Khadijah Whittington, Wilson
2003 – Tiffany Green, Indian River
2002 – Ashley Mason, Princess Anne
2001 – Cynthia Jordan, Deep Creek
2000 – Sharese Grant, Princess Anne
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1999 – Okeisha Howard, Princess Anne
1998 – Okeisha Howard, Princess Anne
1997 – Raquita Washington, Booker T. Washington
1996 – Misty Colebank, Salem
1995 – Misty Colebank, Salem
1994 – Angela Carter, Oscar Smith