Newton’s Kania Arrington didn’t score a ton of points for the Lady Tigers this season.
But she did her job as point guard of getting the basketball to scorers Ja’Leah Hickmon and Zia Shields.
Hickmon signed to play with Jackson State and now Arrington is signing with Southeastern Baptist College in Laurel to continue her basketball career.
Despite not being a prolific scorer, Newton girls coach Marc Stribling said that didn’t diminish her contribution to the team.
“She was very instrumental to getting us to the Final Four,” Stribling said. “She didn’t turn the ball over very much. She actually turned the ball over very little and did a good job of running the team and was our leader out there. Sometimes your team may be a little out of whack and they respond better to a teammate than a coach and she was the player that they responded to.”
Stribling said Arrington’s hard work paid dividends fo her.
“She worked extremely hard. There was no complaining,” Stribling said. “She has always done what I asked her to do, no matter what it was. It didn’t matter how many laps we had to run or how many shots I asked them to get up, she never complained. She just got it done. We had two players to sign with four-year schools and that’s a testimony to how hard they have worked. I didn’t have anything to do with that, they did it themselves. They came to work every day and now they get to see the fruits of their labor.”
Arrington said playing college basketball has always been a dream of hers.
“This was a dream of mine,” Arrington said. “At one time I didn’t think it was going to happen. I’m proud of myself that we got this far. My family has supported me through all of this and they are proud of me as well. I took a visit and the coach was talking to me about what we could accomplish there.”
Arrington said he gives a lot of credit to her teammates for helping her become the player she is today.
“I learned a lot from the past team mates and they made me a lot better,” Arrington said. “There were a lot of people on the outside that didn’t believe in us. We just had to believe in each other. We just did our best to get there. It meant a lot to us to get back to the Final Four.”
