McEachern star forward, senior Ace Bailey and Marist star guard, sophomore Kate Harpring have both been recognized by the Naismith High School Basketball Awards for their tremendous seasons.
Bailey, a 5-star and top-three recruit in the country, has been named to the Naismith High School Boys All-America First Team and Harping was named as an honorable mention to the girls team in just her second season of high school basketball.
Both Bailey and Harpring have played massive roles as they have helped both McEachern and Marist advance to state championships in their respective classes.
While Bailey was left off of all three of last year’s teams, the star forward made more than a name for himself this season as he ascended recruiting rankings and has been a force to reckoned with on both sides of the ball.
The Rutgers-commit has averaged over 30-points per game and 14 rebounds throughout this season and has continued his stellar play through the postseason. Bailey has been a huge part of McEachern’s success as he has helped the Indians advance to this year’s state championship game. During their state championship run, he has put up absurd stat lines on their way to Macon by scoring more than 30 points in each tournament game thus far. Bailey’s McEachern Indians will face the Grayson Rams for the state championship on Saturday.
Harpring has been a key contributor to a Marist girls basketball team that is playing for their second championship in three seasons.
Just recently in the Class 6A girls semifinals in their overtime victory against River Ridge, Harpring scored 47 points leading the War Eagles to a state championship appearance. Out of her 47 points she scored in the semifinals, Harpring only hit three 3-pointers on her way to leading Marist to the state championship.
The sophomore-guard has received numerous offers from major women’s college basketball programs including North Carolina, LSU, Tennessee, Ohio State and plenty more. She is regarded as one of the top sophomores in the country this season as ESPN has her ranked as a top-25 player in her class as a 4-Star recruit.
She was named Region Player of the Year this season and has scored over 1,000 career points in less than two full seasons playing high school basketball.
Harpring is the daughter of former NBA first round pick out of Georgia Tech, Matt Harpring, who played professional basketball for 11 seasons and was on the All-Rookie team after the 1998-1999 season.
Both Bailey and Harpring will be competing for state championships this weekend with Harpring and Marist playing against North Forsyth at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and Bailey and McEachern facing off against Grayson at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Loading ...
