Senior guard Katrina Price is usually the big attraction at
Stephen F. Austin women's games, but lately she has had
competition. Fans at Johnson Coliseum have started watching a
huge purple-and-white board that sits in the stands at one end
of the arena. On the board, which is festooned with balloons and
streamers and decorated with action photos of Price, a manager
constantly updates her career scoring total. After her 23-point
performance in last Saturday's 76-69 win at Southeastern
Louisiana, Price is just 33 points from breaking the Ladyjacks'
career scoring record of 2,062 points.
No. 25 Stephen F. Austin is to host McNeese State on Thursday
and Sam Houston on Saturday, and during one of those games the
Price index should hit 2,063. "We're all looking forward to it,"
Ladyjacks coach Royce Chadwick says. "It's kind of an
inevitability, but it's still one of those moments you'll
remember when you're 75 and sitting on the back porch dipping
snuff."
Price is scoring 23.4 points a game, sixth best in the country,
but that isn't her most impressive average. Her grade point
average is 3.6, and last semester Price, a kinesiology major,
pulled down a 4.0. When it comes to her schoolwork, Price is
nearly always right. "She gets a 92 and she's not happy,"
Chadwick says.
She has high standards on the court too. An honorable mention
All-America last season, the 5'10" Price spent part of last
summer playing with the USA Basketball Jones Cup team in Taiwan.
Back at school she has surpassed 20 points 11 times this season
for the Ladyjacks, who are 15-2 and aiming for an NCAA
tournament berth for the 11th straight year.
In the crowd at most games are four or five of Price's eight
sisters. The youngest is 20 and the oldest 40 (at 22, Katrina is
No. 8), and all live within two hours of the Stephen F. Austin
campus in Nacogdoches, Texas. At least six will be there to
watch the scoring record fall. "It feels awkward to play a game
when they're not there," Price says. Her sisters' support has
become even more important recently. The girls' father, Leo, who
made the two-hour drive from Waco to see Katrina's games
whenever he could, suffered a fatal heart attack two months ago.
The girls' mother, Daisy, faithfully attended Katrina's games at
La Vega High in Waco before she died of cancer four years ago.
"I'm playing out my career for them," Katrina says of her
parents. "I know they're watching."
Issue date: February 2, 1998
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