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Ursuline star plays older than her years

Dayshanette Harris doesn’t shy away from her responsibility.

In fact, the Ursuline 5-foot-7 sophomore point guard embraces her role.

“Sometimes I forget she’s a sophomore until she reminds me,” Ursuline girls coach Vannessa Dickson said. “I need reminded as a head coach sometimes. She plays well above her years. Coming into the program, she solidified herself from the beginning. She’s one of those players who gets better every single day.”

Harris doesn’t accept mediocrity. She had seven points in the first three quarters, including 2 of 7 from the foul line, in Monday’s overtime loss at Newton Falls — not one of her better performances .

Harris had 10 points in the fourth quarter to help send the game to overtime and added four in the extra session for a game-high 25 points.

“Personally I had a bad game,” Harris said. “I should play all four quarters like the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter I know I have to get my head in the game.

“Me starting in the fourth quarter was a bad decision for me. I should’ve been doing that from the jump ball.”

Harris recently went over 1,000 points, the first Ursuline sophomore to reach that milestone since Courtney Davidson, who is now an assistant coach at Radford (Va.) University. Davidson played at Michigan State.

Harris wants to follow Davidson’s path to the state tournament, where the Irish won the 2004 Division II state championship.

“I wasn’t focusing on that,” Harris said of getting 1,000 points. “Getting that is an awesome achievement. I have to look at the bigger picture, to what’s ahead. We’re trying to get to state. Thousand points isn’t going to get us to state. That’s in the past. I’m excited about it, but I feel like I can achieve more.”

Dickson said the way Harris practices is how she performs in games, taking a hard-working, blue-collar mentality to her approach.

“She’s my hardest working kid day in and day out,” said Dickson, whose team in 11-10. “That’s why she gets better. We constantly push her. We constantly have her try something new to be better at something else. She always responds.”

Many colleges have responded with some offers already like Youngstown State, Akron and Kent State. Dickson said N.C. State and Iowa are showing interest.

“Just when I think she can’t impress me anymore, she always pulls something out of her hat saying, ‘I’m here. You’ve got to watch me a little bit,’ “ Dickson said.

Harris said her teammate, Simone Comer, is instrumental in her success. Comer eclipsed the 1,000 point mark on Wednesday.

“Simone and I are good,” Harris said. “We do what we do. We look for open shooters. We just try to get our team the ball. I’m only here to do what I am to do and that’s score, rebounding, shoot free throws — do everything I can do.”

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