1,000 points! How Nation Ford basketball senior Kelci Adams has already made history.

She didn’t even see it coming.

Nation Ford High School girls basketball player, Kelci Adams, 17, recently became her program’s all-time leading scorer and only the fourth player in school history to score over 1,000 points. She surpassed the 1,000-point mark against Legacy Early College as part of the Battle at the Rock event at Nation Ford.

Adams, who’d played on the varsity team since her freshman year, said she was excited about hitting the mark. But it was never a prep goal for her.

“I didn’t even really think about it,” she said. “It just really came.”

A second-generation player, Adams gives a lot of her credit to her mom, Pam, who passed along the basketball gene in the family. Pam, after all, played college basketball at Kansas State.

“She had a big influence on me,” Adams said. “I fell in love with it. I like how fast it is. And if you mess up, you can redeem yourself immediately after. I definitely like the competitive aspect of it.”

Adams, a preseason top-5 senior per the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association, has been playing basketball since she was a child, but she also played softball and volleyball.

However, she soon put an emphasis on the sport — and hasn’t looked back.

Once in middle school, Adams started scoring and didn’t stop. At 5-8, Adams was placed into the guard role on the court.

“When I played in elementary school, I was running the point (guard position) because I was tiny,” she said. “That led me to be more of a shooter.”

Adams has never shied away from the pressure of playing. Now a senior, she is leading the Falcons on the court as they go for their second consecutive Region 3-5A title.

Coretta Richmond: ‘She brings laughter’

For Adams, the sport takes up a lot of her time.

She takes just one day off a week from shooting. She said she take 500 shots a day and has to make at least 100. She is even putting up 500 shots on game days.

Adams said she really enjoys is the mental part of the game. She plans on majoring in psychology in college.

“I want to know what people think and why they do what they do,” she said. “Once you get in someone’s head, you know you got them. It takes them off their game.”

Nation Ford is off to a 6-2 start. And despite having a new coach, Coretta Richmond, at the helm, Adams said she isn’t surprised at how well the Falcons are playing this season.

“I am glad we are able to come together with a new coach and basically with a new team and perform how we are performing,” she said.

Richmond said getting to know Adams this season has been a pleasure. She already sees how special of a talent Adams is.

“She is a genuine young lady,” Richmond said. “She brings a diversity to our program where we can shoot outside. She can also drive to the basket, so that makes her even more dangerous. It has been a joy to coach her. She brings a skill set to her teammates to help them understand the game as well. Off the court, she brings laughter to everybody and everybody looks to her for her leadership.”

Adams has an offer from Barton College in North Carolina, but she’s keeping her options open.

“Wherever she does go,” Richmond said, “they will get something really special.”

Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 7:03 AM.