The celebration continues for Taliah Scott.
The senior guard on the St. Johns Country Day girls basketball team was presented with her Florida Dairy Farmers Miss Basketball award on Wednesday, another highlight in a stellar senior season. Scott was voted as the state’s top player late last month while she was in Houston for the McDonald’s All-American game. Being back home and being able to celebrate with friends and teammates brought the emotions of the award into focus.
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It was Scott’s second major award of the year. She was honored as the Gatorade state player of the year in early March.
“Just seeing the trophies, seeing like all the props, like the ceremony it was just like amazing,” Scott said. “It just really like set it in for me. And I’m just so honored to have received, this is one of like the best awards besides Gatorade [award]. This is just amazing and it’s so crazy to me.”
In an area known more for its football prowess, basketball has muscled its way into the conversation in recent years.
Scott’s selection as the top basketball player in the state means the area has four winners of either Miss or Mr. Basketball in the last five years.
Nease’s Camille Hobby was voted Miss Basketball in 2019. Paxon’s Isaiah Adams (2020) and West Nassau’s Deebo Coleman (2021) gave the area its first back-to-back Mr. Basketball winners. Before those two players, only Jackson’s James Collins (1993) had won Mr. Basketball.
Scott said winning Miss Basketball was something she thought of, but she was focused more on team success than anything else.
“It wasn’t really on my list, my main goal was to try to win state for my team,” Scott said. “But then you know this happened and I’m like, so blessed and so happy that it did happen. It’s just amazing.”
Scott had a remarkable senior season for the Spartans. She finished the year with a 36.2 points per game scoring average, a number that led Florida and ranked fourth in the country. She hit a walk-off free throw with no time left to send St. Johns to a 50-49 win over NFEI in the regional final.
That put the Spartans in the fourth round of the playoffs for the first time in program history. St. Johns ultimately lost to eventual state champ Faith Christian in the Class 2A state semifinals. Scott had 47 points in that game, a number that all but crystalized her status as the state’s best player.
Scott is just the fifth winner of the Miss Basketball honor in area history. She joins Dorian Williams (2002) and Rennia Davis (2017), both of Ribault, Bartram Trail’s Steffi Sorensen (2006) and Nease’s Hobby as previous local winners.
Scott finished her career with 2,735 points, one of the most in area history, and not far behind Williams’ mark of 2,780, a number regarded as sacred in girls basketball history.