NATCHEZ — Two Natchez High girls’ basketball players have been named to Mississippi all-star teams.

Keosha Bradley was named to the Mississippi North-South All-Star Game, which will be Saturday, July 11 at Mississippi College.

Alia Frank was selected for the Alabama-Mississippi-Florida-California Boys and Girls All-Star Game, which is at 2:45 p.m. March 28 in Mobile, Ala.

The Lady Bulldogs lost to Murrah High in the first round of the MHSAA State Tournament, but it was the farthest the team has gone in the postseason under head coach Sue Johnson.

“We have continually improved over the last four years,” Johnson said. “We’ve been telling them the whole time, ‘Just keep working hard in the summer, this is where it pays off.’ We’ve been rewarded, and eventually we’ll win that state tournament.”

Johnson said both Bradley and Frank were key components to the Lady Bulldogs’ success this season.

The two led the team in scoring, with Frank averaging 21.8 points per game and Bradley averaging 21.4.

“(Bradley) was our prodigy, our navigator,” Johnson said. “She got the ball to Alia in order for Alia to score. She got the ball to Jasmine (Belton) and Jameka (Watkins).

“She’s a very unselfish ballplayer. She does what she needs to do; she gets the ball to who she’s supposed to get it to. She is an all-around player.”

Bradley said before this season, she had a goal of being named an all-star.

Even though she is a junior, Bradley said her leadership position on the team gave her an edge in reaching that goal. She is the only player from Region 6-5A to make the all-star team.

“I pushed the team,” she said. “When they were down I made them feel up. We’d joke around, and we played as a team. We didn’t down each other.”

Frank will be on a team with nine other players, something Johnson said would be to the senior’s benefit.

The other all-star game, between Mississippi and Alabama, has 12 people per team, and each player gets less playing time.

“If, for some reason, some of the kids don’t make the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game, this is another game they can play in and get noticed,” Johnson said of the game between four states. “They can’t get all the best athletes on a team with just 12 people. So this game will give scouts more time to look at them. Scouts from all over the country will be there.”

Johnson said she knew Frank was a candidate for the team even before the end of the season because she kept receiving calls from representatives of the game, which is in its 11th year.

“(Frank) was a major defensive factor, a major offensive factor and a major rebounding factor,” the coach said. “She was just awesome in all those areas.”