Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008

York | Ivory Latta

Heart and determination makes this York County native one of the best basketball players in state history

The final act in the high school career of one of South Carolina’s best girls basketball players began on Feb. 28, 2003.

The joint was stuffed to the rafters and the fire marshall had declared no mas, locking the gymnasium’s doors to keep people out. In the locker room, the York High School Cougars were tense. Regardless of the outcome, this would be the final home game for their decorated teammate. They wanted to send her out with a flourish.

Ivory Latta shushed the gathering and told them to loosen up. This would be the last time she played on her home court, and she wanted the night to be a coronation, not a wake.

“She told everyone she was going to have fun,” York coach Arsonia Stroud said. “And that’s exactly what she did.”

The opponent was Belton-Honea Path. At stake was a trip to the Class 3A Upper State final. Latta reduced the night to a video game, hitting shots that would crash an X-Box.

Seventy points later, Latta partied on the court with several thousand of her closest friends and family. She had shattered the state’s single-game scoring record, and her 14 3-point goals smashed another.

Lost in the aftermath of the 110-71 victory was the stat Latta was most excited about. Thanks to her double-digit assists total, Latta had helped senior teammate Felicia Hemphill go out in style as well. Hemphill’s 22 points were a personal best.

“She was just such a team player,” Stroud said of Latta. “When you look at the stats, you think she’s a ball hog who was in it for herself. But when you look at that last home game and the game (Hemphill) had, well, Ivory’s a better person than she is a player.”

qq

The final act concluded nine days later in defeat. The York girls were overwhelmed by one of the great girls basketball teams of the past 25 years. With eight minutes remaining in the Class 3A championship game, Dreher owned a 22-point lead against Latta’s crew.

In between the pushups Teresa Jones demanded from players who didn’t follow her instructions, the Blue Devil girls were laughing and joking. They were looking forward to game’s end, when they could hoist their second trophy in three seasons and enjoy avenging a loss to this same team in the previous year’s title tilt.

“We had worked hard in the first half, sending three or four people at her, fresh bodies,” Jones said of her team’s strategy in defending Latta. “Her shot wasn’t too much on ... then she adjusted.”

Latta’s adjustment was to turn into the antithesis of who she was. She became a ball hog and put the game on her diminutive shoulders. Going through the Blue Devils was not working. So Latta decided to go over them.

“Ivory wasn’t barely over half court when she’d put up a shot,” Stroud said, laughing.

Jones remembered Latta’s shots coming from the fringe of the floor’s massive USC Gamecock logo.

What everyone in the building that night remembers most are those shots falling through the basket.

Latta was not able to undo all the damage Dreher had inflicted, but she did end her high school career with yet another record. Her 47 points in a 64-58 defeat broke the record for most points in a championship game.

“My lasting memory of Ivory is that she was a player who just didn’t give up,” Jones said. “She worked hard. She was a leader on the floor.”

qq

Latta has taken her act to Israel. After an epic four-year career at North Carolina, she was drafted in the first round of the 2007 WNBA draft by the Detroit Shock.

After the season, as many WNBA players do, she went overseas. Unable to crack the starting lineup for the powerhouse Shock, Latta has proven she can hang with the world’s best by leading the Israeli League with a 23.2 scoring average.

During a break in the schedule, she returned to her hometown of McConnells for the holidays. While there, she was invited to Chapel Hill, where the Tar Heels retired her No. 12 jersey.

As the Tar Heels’ career scoring leader, she became the second women’s player in the school’s storied history to have her jersey hoisted to the rafters.

Not a bad turn of events for a scrawny girl (5-foot-6) from a tiny town of 287 who always has been considered too small to play the game.

“That’s all I ever heard when she came up to play varsity,” Stroud said. “She’s too tiny, she won’t make it. She’s tiny, she’s tiny.

“Well, she had great speed and heart. She knew the game better than anyone, and I think God just gave her those gifts and that work ethic.”

qq

Once the show closes down in Israel, Latta will take her act to Atlanta.

Those traits espoused by Stroud are what Atlanta Dream coach Marynell Meadors is counting on to bring relevance to her expansion WNBA franchise.

As the Dream’s general manager and coach, Meadors pried Latta away from the Shock during the expansion draft earlier this month.

“Ivory is gonna put people in the stands,” Meadors said after acquiring Latta in a draft-day trade. “Her energy, her excitement and her passion for the game can’t help but make people excited — both her fans and her teammates.”

Latta’s infectious smile and bubbly personality is something the WNBA has capitalized upon during the offseason. She has her own blog on the WNBA Web site.

“Hey there! How was YOUR Wednesday?” Latta wrote in her most recent entry, on Feb. 7.

“A lot of people have been asking me what I think about going to Atlanta and I have to laugh. LOL. I think it’s GREAT! After growing up in South Carolina and playing in Chapel Hill, it’s going to be great heading back closer to home.”

During the course of the entry, she extolled the virtues of Atlanta, shared how much she would miss her Shock teammates and rattled off a number of Hebrew words she has learned while playing in Israel.

“So, to coach Meadors, I say ‘toda’ (thank you) for your faith in me,” she concludes. “Impressed with my Hebrew? Check this out: ‘MaNishma’ means ‘What’s up?’ or ‘How are you doing?’ I’m getting good, right? But my favorite word is ‘shalom.’ Like the Hawaiian ‘aloha,’ it means both hello and goodbye. I love it!”

So the show goes on. From McConnells to Chapel Hill to Detroit to Israel and now to Atlanta, wherever Latta goes, good times are sure to follow.

Reach Obley at (803) 771-8473.