NEW MARKET — Southmont senior guard DeLorean Mason made her impact felt for the Lady Mounties the last two seasons. It’s been a career that’s been filled with steals, high scoring games, and leading the South girls to plenty of success. Last week Mason made it official and signed with Hanover College to continue her basketball and academic career.
“Getting where DeLo has gotten doesn’t come easy,” Southmont coach Dan Burkman said. “She’s spent so much time in the gym just working on her game. Hanover is going to be great fit for her and I’m excited to see where she goes from here and hopefully get over there to watch a few of her games.”
Mason is coming off a season where she scored 16.4 points per game and averaged 5.3 steals a contest. Both of those stats were tops in the Sagamore Conference and for the second straight season she earned the title of JR Girls Basketball Player of the Year. For her career Mason scored 828 points and stole 328 passes.
“I was really impressed with their campus when I visited there and that’s what stood out first to me,” Mason said. “Their entire team was very welcoming and made me feel like I was one of them. Coach (John) Jones, just like the team was super nice and made me feel welcome. They have a good record and are a good team and I want to continue to get better and be challenged so I thought it’d be the perfect place for me.”
The Lady Panthers are coming off an 18-8 season where they were the No. 2 seed in the HCAC tournament. They’re known for an up-tempo style of offense where they scored 72.4 points per game this past season.
“I think my speed and the way I play defense will help me ease into things,” Mason said. “With my work ethic and always wanting to get better, I think that will just help me accomplish all that I want to. I’m just very determined to be better.”
Always being in the gym and working on her game is a quality that Burkman quickly picked up on with Mason when he took over as the Mounties coach four years ago before Mason’s freshman season. Over time both he and Mason saw her game progress and the idea of playing at the next level all of sudden became something that the both of them saw as a reality.
“Her desire to get better slowly turned into her thinking that she could play at the next level and past high school,” Burkman said. “We all saw her really start to take off her junior year and she’s also got great natural skills that you can’t teach. I know Hanover will fine tune some more of her skills but she’s great a great foundation going in.”
“After my sophomore year I went to coach (Burkman) and told him that I wanted to work on the little things in my game that I knew I needed to work on,” Mason added. “That really allowed me to have a great junior year then this past off-season I spent even more time on my shot and it paid off this past season.”
The Panthers are getting a gym rat in the best sense of the term with Mason and with her style of play, she might find herself on the court sooner rather than later.
