NATCHEZ — Natchez High School girls’ basketball player Ashley Minor has a knack for saving her best for last.

Minor had the best season of her high school career as a senior this year. She finished the year averaging 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6 assists per game.

She also saved the best single-game performance of her career for the final game of the season against Brandon High School. Minor netted 32 points in the 91-89, triple-overtime loss for Natchez.

Minor’s ability to consistently score while being the go-to player for the Lady Bulldogs and also her ability to make her teammates better through leadership, tough rebounding and sharing the ball made her this year’s All-Metro Player of the Year.

“This feels good because there are a lot of fantastic players around this area,” Minor said. “To be selected the best is a privilege. It sets a good example of Natchez High School, our coaches and our community.”

Minor was the shooting guard for the Lady Bulldogs this season, and she said her main role was to take shots and score, but she was also a responsible for being a senior leader.

“I enjoy being a senior,” Minor said. “The underclassmen looked up to us to set examples and do what we’re supposed to do. I wanted to motivate them and come together as one and treat the freshmen just the same as the seniors.

“I tried to teach them to do right so they can be better than I was.”

Minor said being the leader of the team is something that she will miss about playing high school basketball.

“Now I am moving up to be a freshman again,” she said. “I’ll have to listen to the older player and not tell people what to do.”

The Lady Bulldogs missed out on the playoffs this season, and Minor said the team’s season was much like her own — good but did not meet expectations.

“I did pretty good, but I could have done better,” she said. “But this year was my best year.”

Minor said the highlight of her season — besides dropping 32 points on Brandon — was finishing an alley-oop that was thrown by teammate Keyana Miller during the Mendenhall Tournament in Jackson this season.

“That was the best moment, because it wasn’t expected,” she said. “Even the other team rooted for us when it happened, because you don’t see a lot of alley-oops in girls’ games.”

Minor said she hopes to continue her playing career next year in college, and she is currently looking to attend Tougaloo College in Jackson and major in social work.

Minor said she would miss being her teammates, who became her closest friends, the most.

“I’ll miss my teammates, especially the 11th- and 12th-graders,” she said. “We came together as a team and even hung out on weekends together.”

Minor said she hoped she made the underclassmen better players while she was at Natchez.

“They are really good girls, and I wish them the best of luck,” she said.

Coach of the Year

Adams County Christian School girls’ basketball coach Melanie Hall was able to take her 2011-2012 team further than the Lady Rebels had been in over a half-decade, and she did it with a team that featured no seniors and just one junior that saw starting minutes.

The Lady Rebels finished the season with a 28-8 record and made it to the state tournament for the first time in six years, Hall said.

“I was very proud of what the girls were able to accomplish this year as a young group,” Hall said. “This group of young ladies each had a special gift to bring and when we brought it all together we were able to do some amazing things.”

Those accomplishments were enough to earn Hall this year’s All-Metro Coach of the Year. Hall said she was pleased to learn that she was coach of the year.

“It’s always very humbling (to be awarded),” she said. “Of course when you surround yourself with good people it’s easier. I am thankful to my coaching staff and coach Rick Fife the boys’ coach. We worked a lot together this year, and it wasn’t boys’ basketball and girls’ basketball, it was just ACCS basketball.”

Hall also wanted to thank her family, including her daughters Sandy and Brandy, who helped the team all season.

Hall said it was an honor to be selected over a group of quality coaches in the area.

“There are a whole lot of good coaches out there, and with the time those coaches spend, (this award) should be spread amongst them all,” she said.

Hall said the best moments of the season for her were when her team showed the desire to win that she tried to instill in her players.

Hall said one of those moments came against Oak Forest when the team had fallen behind by several points and they came back late in the fourth quarter to win the game.

“I could feel their excitement and determination,” Hall said. “They were wanting it and they were going to get it.”

Hall said she saw that same determination in a loss to Brookhaven Academy late in the season.

“They played with great heart, and we came up short on the scoreboard, but that was the only place,” she said.

Hall said one aspect of coaching that she struggled with this season was letting the game go when it was time to leave the floor.

“I am such a basketball nut, and I’m thankful for that, but it is only one piece of the puzzle,” she said. “I had to understand that each child is pulled in so many different directions with other things that are important that I have to not be so focused (on basketball).”

Hall said she loved how this year’s team took up for each other and was a true team.

“They had each others backs,” she said.

Hall said she hopes her young team can make even more progress next season.

“I am excited, and I just hope the girls are as excited as I am,” she said. “I feel if they continue to use what’s been given to them then the sky is the limit.

“Our goals next year are to be the best team we can possibly be for the Lord both on and off the court.”