Steve and Lori Prioleau didn’t think they had room.
The husband and wife team, who had long run Sugah — a basketball program for inner city girls based at St. Paul’s Martin Luther King Center — had a thriving program about six years ago and their roster for seventh-graders was already filled with girls looking to play.
“Then I saw her come into the gym,” Steve Prioleau recalled, harking back to the first time he saw Tamia Ugass, already topping 6 feet. “I saw her height. I said, ‘Um, I think we can find room.’ ”
“You can’t coach height,” Lori Prioleau added. “And she had that.”
Now a robust 6-3 senior at Roseville, Ugass, with he physical presence of a post with the dexterity of a point guard , is in the midst of a journey that once seemed impossible.
She’s averaging 20.4 points and 12 rebounds per game this season with Roseville (2-3 heading into Tuesday night's game), an increase of nearly six points over last year. After graduation — itself a significant achievement — she will head to the bayou with a basketball scholarship to LSU.
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