With a vengeance

Lindsey Crawford was hurting. Her dream had been stolen, and she didn’t know why. There was nothing left but tears and anger. She felt cheated, felt betrayed.

So Crawford walked away. She put down the basketball and didn’t pick it up for two months. Just talking about it — even now months later — isn’t fun for Crawford, who thought she had a college basketball scholarship only to see it vanish.

“Yeah, there were tears. It really hurt,” said Crawford, one of the top high school players in Southwest Georgia and a Herald Super 6er. “But it pushed me.”

Pushed her to where she is today — and possibly to where she wants to be tomorrow.

“I believe she’s a Division 1 player, and she is going to make some coach very happy,” said Lee County girls basketball coach Fran McPherson, who is still angry about how her top player was treated last summer.

Enter Kennesaw State.

The Owls offered Crawford a scholarship last spring and told the 17-year-old she had to make a decision by the end of the summer, but when August rolled around there was no scholarship for Crawford — just silence.

“I just didn’t like the way it was handled,” McPherson said. “There was a lot of miscommunication, and when we called (Kennesaw) they wouldn’t answer the phone.”

There are also some hard feelings toward the Georgia Metros, the AAU team Crawford played for last summer. Here was the problem: Crawford didn’t get much playing time, and when Kennesaw State’s coach went to watch Crawford, all he saw was her riding the bench.

“They didn’t play her. They didn’t do her any favors,” McPherson said. “That was the reason Kennesaw didn’t have a scholarship for her. They said she wasn’t playing, and they had other girls (to give the scholarship to). I didn’t like the way it was done. They put something on the table, and then they rescinded it without letting anybody know.”

That’s when Crawford decided to take a break from the game she started playing as an 8-year-old in the rec leagues at Sherwood Baptist; the game she grew to love as she morphed into a 6-foot-1 presence on the court.

“I just needed a break, mentally more than anything else,” Crawford said. “I was mad and hurt. I had poured my heart into this game. It just tore me up. I didn’t give up on my dream, I just didn’t want to mess with basketball, because it hurt so much.”

Instead, she worked out, getting faster, stronger and more agile. By the time she returned to the court, Crawford wanted to go one-one-one with all her critics.

“She came back with a vengeance,” McPherson said. “She is out to show every coach in the country that she can play.”

It shows.

It’s not the way Crawford can dominate a game inside the paint, it’s the way she can play anywhere on the court — a commodity that’s on the market for colleges. That’s a long journey from when Crawford started playing at Lee County three years ago.

“I never thought about getting a scholarship until I met (coach McPherson) when I was a sophomore,” she said. “I mean this was Lee County, and no one had ever talked about a girl getting a basketball scholarship.”

According to McPherson, O.T. Burden, who signed a scholarship with Brewton-Parker College last year, was the first from the program to earn a college scholarship.

Now, McPherson believes Crawford will be the second.

“They have 6-1 guards in Division 1, and she can play that position,” McPherson said. “At 6-1, we would be crazy not to play her in the post, but she can play all over the court. She just gets better and better at doing everything.”

Crawford is smooth enough inside, but she now has the ability to step out, handle the ball and hit the short-to medium-range jumpers. She is even tossing up 3s, and making them at an impressive 52 percent rate. She has range as well as savvy.

“She has been doing everything she can to prepare herself,” McPherson said. “She comes to practice every day wanting to get better. She’s moving farther away from the basket, and her scoring average has gone up. She has been so consistent. You ask her to do something, and she does it.

“She can get her head and shoulders past a player. She can post up or hit a 3. Whatever the defense gives her, she can score. She is going to find a way to make it happen. She takes care of business.”

Crawford is averaging 19 points and 10.8 rebounds a game, but has proved she can move on the court (3.5 steals a game) and find her teammates, handing out thee or four assists a game. She’s averaging 2.9 blocks while putting together a 3.9 GPA in the classroom.

“She is such a versatile player, and she can do so many things to help us win,” Lee County guard Kelly Polk said. “All the other coaches know who she is. They talk about her, and you know they are out to stop her.”

Stopping Crawford’s determination after what happened this offseason, however, may be impossible.

“I’m mentally tougher because of this,” Crawford said. “You tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it. It has made me a better player. It makes me want to expand my game. I was never a 3 (small forward), but now I’m a 3. I just want to do everything I can to be better.”

Some small colleges are starting to look at Crawford, and McPherson expects more and more interest — especially if Lee County can make a run into the state playoffs.

“If we get to the Final Four, all those coaches who came to see her and didn’t see her in the AAU season, will see her,” McPherson said.

If they do, they will witness a different player, quicker, more agile and versatile — and one who’s out to prove a point.

“I’m not going to say I’m glad it happened, but if this is what it takes to make me better, I’m fine with it,” said Crawford with a little fire in her vice. “I want to show (them) I can play.”