People who follow Bryan County girls’ basketball will always remember Olonna Rawls as a scoring machine and with good reason: her 2,276 points is a school record, which will prove difficult to beat.
She was also an excellent rebounder, as evidenced by her 878 boards while playing guard. However, what was often overlooked during her four years with the Redskins was her defensive play. She had 418 steals along with 511 assists.
Rawls, a two-time region player of the year, took those skills to Columbus State University and she will leave the Peach Belt Conference school as one of its all-time greats.
For her play this season, Rawls has been named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year after leading the PBC in steals with 81.
“I’ve always been able to play defense,” Rawls said. “If you were going to play for Coach (Mario) Mincey you had to play defense. In college it got more advanced but I had a great base to build on when I got here.”
Rawls will be putting those defensive skills on the line at 3 p.m. Friday at the University of North Georgia when the Cougars (20-8) take on Francis Marion (23-9) in an opening round game of the NCAA Division II tournament.
The Cougars are one of 41 teams to get an at-large bid and they are a No. 5 seed in the Southeast Region tournament. Other teams in the field include No. 1 seed North Georgia (29-2), Coker (26-5), Anderson (24-9), Carson-Newman (22-8), Belmont Abbey (25-5) and UNC-Pembroke (22-8).
Columbus State finished second in the PBC regular season but was stunned by Georgia Southwestern, 78-77, in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
“We had a 22-point lead,” Rawls said earlier this week in a phone interview. “It was a heartbreaker. I can’t recall ever losing a game where my team had a 22-point lead. We let a girl go for 38 points. I wouldn’t say we gave the game away but there’s no question it was a hard loss.”
Rawls is playing this season as a graduate student. She plans on being an athletic trainer upon obtaining her master’s degree. While future plans are tentative, she said she is considering relocating to someplace in Texas upon graduation.
As she winds down her career, Rawls currently stands third on the school’s all-time list for points (1,333), third in steals (290), fifth in rebounds (730), sixth in assists (286), fifth in field goals (448), eighth in three-pointers (122), third in free throws made (315) and second in free throw attempts (485).
“The main key to playing defense is anticipating where the ball is going and reading the next pass,” Rawls said. “That requires a lot of film study and I did a lot of film study in high school.
“When I got here, I had probably studied more film than anyone (incoming freshmen) else,” Rawls said. “Coach Mincey was really big on film study. And that’s the type of athlete I am.
“I’m at the top of my game when it comes to film study. It’s great preparation and you have to do it.”
While her career has been full of the inevitable ups and downs there’s one game which stands out for Rawls in terms of individual performance.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is two years ago against North Georgia I came close to doing something that has never been done here,” Rawls said. “I was going for a quadruple double but I came up four assists short: I had doubles in points, rebounds and steals. That was a game where everything was going right.”
Her five years at Columbus State have been fulfilling, said Rawls.
“It’s all gone by too fast,” said Rawls, who got a fifth year of eligibility due to COVID. “I regret we never won a conference championship but I’ve grown a lot as a person.
“Basketball teaches life lessons in little things like communications, time management and discipline,” Rawls said. “Getting a degree is a blessing. I’ve been able to play the game I love and [be] stable in the classroom. I’ll have two degrees when I finish.”