Smackover’s first-year coach Makara Frazier was searching for consistency when she took over the girls’ basketball program. She needed a player she could count on every single night for both energy and production.
The Lady Bucks were competitive in the 3A-7 conference, finishing with an 11-14 overall record. Junior Adrianna Grant’s game-to-game performances were a big reason for the team’s solid campaign.
“Adrianna is just a player that has a lot of energy. When she’s ready to go, there’s not much she can’t do on the court,” Frazier said. “She works hard. She’s going to give you everything she’s got on defense and she can run the heck out of the floor.”
Grant, a 5-foot-6 forward, averaged 9 points per game and 4.3 rebounds. She was the team’s catalyst on defense and keyed the Lady Bucks’ transition game.
“She gets up and down really quick. That’s what helped her game,” said Frazier. “She gets out in defensive lanes. She might tap away a steal and as soon as she sees one of our players get a rebound, she’s up the court. That helped us a lot because we play in transition and she gets a lot of buckets.
“On top of that, she works hard. She gets rebounds. She’s in position to get steals at all times. She’s one of those players with instincts of getting in the right position.”
More important than mere statistics, Frazier cited effort as Grant’s biggest contribution. A player who goes all-out every night and leads by example makes every coach’s job that much easier.
“There may have been a couple times this year she didn’t play great. But other than that, for the most part, whenever we had people who weren’t clicking, you leave her in and put some pieces around her that want to work as hard as she is and run the floor, she does everything she can,” said Frazier. “I leave her in when I need something. She’s one of those you can leave in for a long time and play a lot of minutes. She’ll do what needs to be done.
“She’s very interchangeable. That helps because she’s so versatile. I can always count on her on the defensive end, without a doubt. If she doesn’t score a lot, she gets a lot of steals. If she doesn’t get a lot of steals, that means she’s the person running the floor. In any game, she did her thing.”