H-L's Elmore picks Clemson

BASCOM — After tearing her ACL in March, Hopewell-Loudon's MaKayla Elmore knew she had a long road to recovery ahead of her. But there's another journey she's definitely looking forward to, and it leads straight to the Atlantic Coast Conference. "Clemson was actually the first college I visited and had a home visit with. Definitely, I'm happy with my decision," said Elmore, who on Saturday signed a national letter of intent to continue her basketball career with the NCAA Division I Tigers. A 6-foot-3 talent with the size to play inside and the skills to play the small forward role as well, Elmore averaged 24.1 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.9 blocks, 4.2 steals and 3.7 assists per game as a junior. She scored a school single-game record 41 points in Hopewell-Loudon's 95-36 win over Lakota. That kind of versatility can benefit Elmore at the Division I college level. "Since I'm pretty much done growing, and there's girls way bigger than me in college, I'll probably play like a 3 (small forward) or 4 (power forward) position," she said. Elmore has even been known to knock down a 3-pointer or two. "I can shoot the 3 once in a while… as long as it goes in," she said with a laugh. This past season, Elmore shared Sandusky Bay Conference-River Division Player of the Year honors with H-L teammate Kaia Woods. Elmore was Division III Player of the Year in the 2020 all-Northwest District selections, and first-team all-Ohio for the second straight year. With Elmore, Woods and Olivia Zender leading the way, Hopewell-Loudon rolled through SBC-River Division play (16-0), went unbeaten in 22 regular season games and finished 25-1 overall. The Chieftains' lone loss was a Division III district final setback to unbeaten Margaretta after Elmore had been sidelined by her knee injury. Although she missed the last couple games of her junior season, as well any spring and summer workouts, Elmore said things are progressing according to plan. "Since I got hurt in March, I couldn't play (AAU). They said it would be a six-to-nine month process, so we decided I would sit it out until I get better," she said. "It's going really well. I finished therapy, and I'm getting a personal trainer soon. I'm back to running slightly and jump-roping and box jumping. Hopefully I get cleared to get some court work in soon." When she does get back on the court, Elmore will do so with a bit less pressure. "Since this whole coronavirus thing, we weren't allowed to make official visits. Some colleges were turning kids down because things were just taking too long," Elmore said. "I just felt this was the right time. I wanted to have my decision done before my senior season and not have to worry about who's coming to watch me and all that. I just wanted to focus on one school. "It's kind of a relief. Since we couldn't meet face to face, we did a lot over the phone, a lot of Zoom calls. I could really tell who wanted me and who didn't." Elmore had been on the radar of Clemson coach Amanda Butler for some time. "When I started playing AAU (ball) for Sport City U, I got a lot of looks," Elmore said. "Like I said, Clemson was the first school that I visited. We went down there; it was really nice. Plus I have family in South Carolina." Clemson went 20-13 during the 2018-19 season, Butler's first year as head coach of the Tigers. The program dipped to 8-23 overall and 3-15 in the ACC last season, but achieved a couple of milestone wins by ending Notre Dame's 58-game home-court winning streak, and beating Duke to end Clemson's 23-game losing streak to the Blue Devils.