ST. PAULS — For the St. Pauls girls basketball team to have such a dominant defense like it did all year, it required all five players on the floor to be at the right place in the right time doing its correct assignments.
When someone wasn’t doing that, they heard from senior Iyania Evans.
“Iyania controlled everything. She was the one that was talking and she put people in the right spots. I compare her to KG, Kevin Garnett, he was a really good defensive player, but he did it mostly with his mouth,” St. Pauls coach Mike Moses said. “She talks to get you in the right spot. She closes out, boxes out and she was always able to make the adjustment.
“Defensively, she’s the anchor.”
Evans was a valuable piece for the Bulldogs this season in her return home to St. Pauls after playing her first three seasons at Fayetteville Christian Academy. While she nearly averaged a double-double, she also was a leader for the county’s best defensive team, and was named Robeson County’s girls Defensive Player of the Year.
“Defense is important because you need to get stops to win. Every team can score but not all teams are able to get stops,” Evans said. “I was vocal on defense when people were confused on where they needed to be and I was just talking through it to make sure it was very easy.”
Evans pulled down on average 5.4 defensive rebounds a game, while also claiming 1.4 steals and nearly a block a game in the post.
St. Pauls reached new heights for the program in recent years during the 2019-20 season, claiming a 27-1 record and earning the Robeson County Shootout and Three Rivers Conference regular season championships. The team also advanced to the third round of the state playoffs.
“I was shocked at how I did this year because I didn’t really get to play like I did when I was at my old school,” Evans said. “I knew this was a good team during the summer we went to scrimmages in Wilmington and had some things to work out. We fixed it and it turned out to be a very good year.”
The new marks for the program under Moses have came from the foundation set in the two years prior, and adding Evans to the equation helped the team have the level of success it did. Before this season, Evans last played in St. Pauls at the middle-school level, winning the county championship then.
“I was more happy with her coming home and finishing up her career where she’s from,” Moses said. “She came in with a chip on her shoulder wanting to prove herself.
“I always would tell her, ‘the last time you played in a St. Pauls uniform you won championships so let’s end it that way’ She took that to heart.”
Moses said that NCAA Division-II programs Lincoln, St. Augustine’s, Fayetteville State, Elizabeth City State and Queens have shown interest of offered a scholarship for the 6-foot post player.
