After averaging 25.8. points per game and leading Homestead to Summit Athletic Conference and Sectional titles, Ayanna Patterson of Homestead is now the 2022 Miss Basketball for the state of Indiana.
Patterson joins Karissa McLaughlin, a 2017 graduate of Homestead, as a second Spartan to earn the honor. She is the 11th area player to earn Indiana Miss Basketball since the award was first given in 1976.
Other local winners include Judi Warren (Warsaw – 1976), Teri Rosinski (Norwell – 1977), Chanda Kline (Warsaw – 1978), Jody Beerman (Heritage – 1983), Lori Meinerding (Northrop – 1987), Tiffany Gooden (Snider – 1994), Lisa Winter (Huntington North – 1996), Jaclyn Leininger (Warsaw – 2004), Jessica Rupright (Norwell – 2012) and McLaughlin.
Homestead becomes just the sixth school to ever have multiple winners all-time and Patterson is the first Indiana Miss Basketball to be committed to UConn to play college basketball.
“[Amazing] to see it all come full circle, my high school career and all of the hard work I put in throughout the four years and the battles we went through as a team,” Patterson said with astonishment still in her voice.
Along with her scoring average, Patterson shot 60.4 percent from the field, averaged 11.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. Patterson finished her career at Homestead with 1,912 points, the second most ever scored by a Spartan. It helped that she had seven games where she scored 30 or points and pushed out 19 doubles doubles in 2021-2022 to average one of those for the full season.
Patterson received 115 Miss Basketball votes, topping Crown Point’s Jessica Carrothers (42), South Bend Washington’s Mila Reynolds (15) and Westfield’s Alyssa Crockett (10).
Patterson found out that she was Miss Basketball on Tuesday as the rest of the world found out Friday.
“The week has been crazy,” Patterson said noting that she found out that she would be Miss Basketball right before having to keep it a secret through Tuesday’s McDonald’s All-American jersey presentation. That presentation alone was a big deal.
“Being surrounded by my friends and family, my teammates and the McDonald’s franchise owners from around Fort Wayne, it was really cool, a really special moment,” she said.
Up next for Patterson will be wearing that #1 jersey with Indiana across it in the annual battles with Kentucky. She will get to share that experience with Spartan coach Rod Parker, who will take the helm of that team too.
‘Its going to be a super cool moment for me to be able to put on that jersey the last time as a high school player in Indiana and then see coach Parker on that sideline being able to coach me one last time and end this duo the right way,” Patterson said.
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