ATLANTA, Ga. – Georgia Tech future Yellow Jacket Loyal McQueen has been named the 2019-20 Gatorade South Carolina Girls Basketball Player of the Year, as announced by The Gatorade Company. McQueen, who signed a NLI with Georgia Tech in November, is the first honoree to be chosen from Wilson High School.
In its 35th year, the award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic excellence and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes McQueen as South Carolina’s best high school girls basketball player. With the recognition, McQueen becomes a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year, which will be announced in March.
The 5-8 guard from Darlington, S.C., McQueen led Wilson High School to a 22-4 record and the Class 4A state quarterfinals. She averaged 26.7 points, 4.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game this season. A three-time South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association All-State selection, McQueen surpassed 2,000 career points and dropped 51 points, hitting 11 three-pointers, in a single game this season. She is ranked as the nation’s No. 13 guard and the No. 58 recruit overall by Prospects Nation. In her senior season, McQueen has recorded eight games scoring 30-plus points and shot 42.0 percent.
Off the court, McQueen is the class president at Wilson High School and volunteers as a youth usher at the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church. She has also volunteered at local elementary schools with Read Across America.
McQueen is part of Tech’s No. 12 signing class (Collegiate Girls Basketball Report) which also includes Anaya Boyd (Lovejoy High School/Hampton, Ga.), Avyonce Carter (Wesleyan School/Norcross, Ga.) and Eylia Love (Olathe North High School/Olathe, Kansas).
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and Athletics Initiative 2020, Georgia Tech athletics’ ongoing $125 million initiative to allow Tech to recruit the nation’s most elite student-athletes, build a better student-athlete once they arrive on The Flats and, ultimately, win! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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