High 5: I’Kiriyah Minor leading the way to Seahawks’ success this season

Published 10:46 pm Sunday, January 26, 2025

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CHOCOWINITY, N.C. — When you ask Southside High School senior I’Kiriyah Minor about basketball, her eyes light up.

The senior has loved the game for a long time. She began playing at age eight and has seen her talents grow as her interest, practice and talents improve. She’s one reason the Seahawks are having a good season — sitting at 10-4 overall, 1-1 in the Coastal Plains Conference.

She talked about the love of the game and playing defense and just how competitive the conference is with Northside and Pamlico County in the mix chasing the regular-season title before the postseason begins.

While I’Kiriyah Minor is the leading scorer for Southside, she said she enjoys playing defense the most and knows that leads to victories. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

1. What has intrigued you about the game itself?

“I started at like eight. I’m just really competitive. And I just love the game. I actually played volleyball, too, but I rather play basketball. I actually like playing defense. My offensive side has improved a lot, too.”

2. You’re among the team leaders in scoring (12.1 points per game) and rebounding (5.2 average). How has liking the game helped you become a leader and a competitor?

“When I first started, I was more nervous, but now I can get the ball and score when my team needs me. Our defense leads to a lot of points, too.”

3. The Northside game was a tough one to lose but you played really well. Then you got wins over Mattamuskeet and Lejeune. How did that help to bounce back that way?

“The Northside game was a tough loss. I felt like we worked more together with our shooting and defense. We were looking for the open people, and that’s how we got our shots in. When we started (against Lejeune) they were playing a 2-3 defense and that allowed us to get more open shots, especially after the first quarter.”

4. This is a very competitive conference with Northside and Pamlico County County. How did this game (against Lejeune) help you bounce back because you’ve got some tough games coming up with Pamlico County (on Tuesday) and Northside again (on Jan. 31)?

“I just feel like since we played well against Lejeune, and we got our legs back together, and we got our shots up, I feel like we can play a lot better against Pamlico. We’ve worked a lot on conditioning. Now, the more I play, I understand where everybody is, and I understand where everybody needs to be.”

5. How do you think the rest of the season will play out? You’ve already had a long season and there’s still more to go.

“When it comes to working together, at first, we weren’t, but now we’re getting the drift of it. But we can also work on not going so fast, slowing down, slowing the ball down. When we’re in the lead, we don’t have to score all the time.”