Levingston takes leadership role

[Dawg04]

Levingston takes leadership role
Ruston senior changes focus
Hillary Smith
Posted on January 8, 2003

Brandi Jane Thomas / Photographer



Ruston's Nastassja Levingston has become a mentor for the Lady Bearcats as well as a scoring threat.




Nastassja Levingston's offensive power that caught the attention of college scouts and opponents has transformed.

Now, while she still averages 19 points per game, the Ruston senior just as much of a defensive threat, nabbing four steals per game.

"As a freshman, we used her basically as an offensive threat. She's always been able to score and do that," Ruston coach Ricky Durrett said. "Now she is a lot better on the defensive end, she has come along and she can shoot better off the dribble."

The Lady Bearcats start District 1-5A play next week, with Levingston keying a new Ruston squad that took care of the holes it needed to fill.

"She just does a lot better job right now of running the team and understanding that other people have got to step up for us to do well," Durrett said. "She is just making everybody around her a lot better. She could probably shoot and get a lot more shots during the game, but she's very unselfish and giving the ball up and creates a lot of shots for other kids when she's getting two people on her, she finds another open person."

Though Ruston returned Levingston to the team this season, it lost key scorers to graduation and started in November with two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen joining the Lady Bearcats' only other senior, Alexis Bookoff.

So, the Louisiana Tech signee took it upon herself to take care of her team, not only to score the important points, but to make sure that she would leave it with a few good point-scorers.

"This year I just mainly thought I had to be a leader on the floor and help my team do our business," Levingston said. "Sometimes if we need a key bucket, I like to get my players involved instead of looking for me to take it."

Levingston is averaging four assists per game, allowing Rickeetah Dean to average 14 points.

"Freshman year, everyone was looking for me to do something and as a freshman I could do as much as I did," Levingston said. "Now, they know that I can shoot the 3 real well so most of the time I'll take the 3 or drive it and see my teammates wide open, so I dish it to them."

When opponents used to watch teammate Regina Spivey and try to contain her game, the opposition is now trying to take care of Levingston.

"Most people man up on her pretty hard and try to keep her from getting in, or getting real physical and bumping her a lot," Durrett said. "But she's learned to handle that a lot better than she did and I'm proud of her."

"Her all-around game, since she was a freshman, has gotten that much better," said Neville coach Lorrie Guimbellot, who was in Ruston's district when Levingston was a freshman and keeps Ruston on the schedule. "She is a complete ballplayer now. When she is out on the court, she looks for her teammates. She made a steal against us and she can shoot the ball. I tell my girls, she might not take but two or three shots, but she can make them all."

Now Levingston has goals to take her team back to Hammond before she moves into the dorms in Ruston.

The 5-7 guard has worked this season to unify her team, getting them ready to make a run for a state championship that has eluded them. When Levingston was a freshman, Ruston lost 61-56 to Bonnabel in the semifinals; when Levingston was a sophomore, the Lady Bearcats fell to East St. John 67-58 in the semifinals.

Last season, Ruston met Ouachita in the regional round and dropped to the Lady Lions 72-63, its first loss out of the Sweet 16 tournament in three years.

"She wants to get back to the Sweet 16 again, but she's the one that has to lead it," Durrett said. "She can't do it by herself, we talked about her bringing some of the other kids along and mentoring to them."
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[TYLERTECHSAS]

Great article.

[sportdawg]

Ruston is the ONLY team to beat Byrd this season. Byrd handed Southwood one of its two losses this season.