Two of the best girls players to ever play in Bryan County saw their college careers come to an end this season:  Olonna Rawls, who played at Bryan County High School, and Aziara Johnson who played at Richmond Hill.

Rawls completed her career at Columbus State University last Saturday when the Cougars (21-9) lost to No. 1 seed North Georgia, 64-56, in the second round of the NCAA Southeast Regional tournament which was played at North Georgia.

The night before Rawls, who said one of the driving forces to her game was the desire to stick out, to stand above the crowd, had one of the best games of a standout career as she led the No. 5 seed Cougars to an 89-83 overtime win over No. 4 seed Francis Marion.

In an earlier interview Rawls, who played this season as a graduate student, had said the game that stood out to her in her career was two years ago against Georgia College when she just missed a quadruple double, coming up four assists short having hit double figures in points, rebounds and steals.

She may want to reconsider after the game she turned in against the Patriots.

Rawls, who is Bryan County’s all-time scoring leader with 2,276 points, poured in a career high 30 points and played a game high 42 minutes, to lead CSU to its first NCAA tournament win since 2017.

The former Redskin was at her best in crunch time. After scoring 17 points in the first half, she managed only two in the third quarter and then scored six in the closing minutes of the game and had five her team’s 15 in the overtime period.

“I was just trying to be confident,” Rawls said. “I was just doing what I could do to help my team and not let my teammates down.”

The next night was a different story as Rawls struggled with early foul trouble—she wound up playing 33 minutes before fouling out for only the third time this season and for the ninth time in 113 games—as the Cougars lost to the Nighthawks (31-3).

The Peach Belt Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year finished with 11 points giving her 1,374 for her career, third best in school history. She also finished ranked in Columbus State’s top 10 in seven different categories: field goals made (4th), 3-pointers made (9th), free throws made (3rd), free throws attempted (2nd), rebounds (5th), assists (6th) and steals (3rd).

Johnson ranks as one of the best girls players to play at Richmond Hill and she showed why as she had an excellent career at Penn State-Hazleton.

As a senior she—along with current Richmond Hill assistant Kyra Finley—helped lead a young Wildcats team to a 17-7 record and then signed with PSU-Hazleton in a career that no one could have predicted.

As a fourth-grader Johnson suffered a severe head injury which left her in a wheelchair with severe memory issues.

Johnson, however, refused to bend and let an injury keep her from chasing her dream of playing college basketball. That dream became a reality when she signed with Penn State-Hazleton which plays in the highly competitive Penn State University Athletic Conference. She was an all-conference selection all four years.

At the time of her signing Richmond Hill Coach Sarah Jones said PSH coaches may not be aware of the caliber of player they were getting but that they would soon find out.

“You always know what you’re going to get with Azaria,” Jones said. “You’re going to get a super-hard worker, a great kid. We’ve seen her grow on the court and as an individual.

“She can score and she was our best defender. She will give you a great effort on both ends of the court.”

Johnson lived up to Jones’ prophecy as she finished a career that saw her become one of the Nittany Lions’ top players in school history.

The 5-foot-10 guard excelled on the court as she started 85 of 88 games and played 2,800 minutes while scoring 1,102 points which school officials said would place her in the top 10 on the career list.

Perhaps most impressive was the fact Johnson, the Nittanies team captain, shot 56.4 percent from the floor for her career (417-739) and 74.2 percent (268-361) at the foul line.

Academically she was an honor roll student and due to her childhood injury and the rehabilitation process she fittingly will graduate with a degree in Rehabilitation and Human Services.