OBERLIN — Amherst’s Sydney Roule and Keystone’s McKenah Peters had nearly identical seasons. They were Lorain County’s top two scorers, they helped their teams advance to the district semifinals and they earned Division I scholarships with their exploits on the court and hard work off it.
The girls have one more thing in common after Sunday: They are 2017 Lorain County Miss Basketball Award winners.
The Miss Basketball Award, sponsored by the Coca-Cola Bottlers of Elyria, was presented at the Lorain County Girls Basketball Coaches Association All-Star games at Oberlin College.
Peters, a Youngstown State commit, and Roule, who’s headed to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, are the first players to share the award for the county’s top senior since 1999 — Holly Koepp of Lorain Catholic and Clearview’s Layla Willis.
“I’m really happy to be Miss Basketball with McKenah, it’s awesome,” Roule said.
“We’ve always pushed each other, I’m so glad we played at the same time and that we’ll always be remembered together.”
Peters finished her career as Lorain County’s all-time leading scorer with 1,907 points. In her senior year, she averaged 25.2 points and seven rebounds per game. Peters is also the most prolific 3-point shooter in Lorain County history with 241 makes from beyond the arc.
“I am so happy. This has been one of the biggest goals of my basketball career,” Peters said. “It took a lot of dedication and hard work to get it done, but if you put your mind to anything you can achieve it.”
In her senior year, Peters had six games of at least 30 points, including a career-high 39 against Black River on the night she broke the county scoring record.
“I just finished my 18th year of coaching Keystone girls basketball and I can say without a doubt that McKenah is the hardest-working player I’ve ever had the honor to coach,” Scott Terry said. “She’s such a competitive kid, she does not like to lose. She picks her teammates up.
“At times she was the type of player who could even motivate a coach. Seeing her hard work out there makes you want to do whatever you can do to make sure she succeeds as well.”
Roule scored 20 points per game, averaged 6.5 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 2.8 assists as a senior. She made 86 percent of her free throws.
“It’s nice to know that all of my hard work has paid off,” Roule said. “This is something I’ve always wanted and winning Miss Basketball is something I’ll never forget as I get ready to head off to college.
“It was always more about that team than me. As great as winning Miss Basketball is, I would rather our season would have gone longer than to win this award.”
Roule’s team-first focus was on display all season, as her assist numbers rose and her number of shots dropped as the Comets developed a more balanced scoring attack.
“I’m thrilled for Sydney,” Amherst coach Kevin Collins said. “We always talk team goals and team records, but at some points individual accomplishments are a great thing. I know this was something that meant a lot to her from the moment she entered our program. To see her achieve it is huge. Sydney has really earned this.”
Roule is the third Amherst player to win Miss Basketball, the first since Brooke Wallace in 2015. Peters is Keystone’s first winner in the 33-year history of the award.
This was the fourth time with co-winners.
“Me and Sydney worked out together all summer and we competed against each other and I just love that competition,” Peters said. “It means a lot to share this award with her because by being friendly competitors we’ve made each other better.”
Contact Todd Shapiro at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.
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