She considers herself the glue.
Asianae Johnson doesn’t feel comfortable with the term “leader,” but the Grand Street Campus point guard is determined to make sure her team stays together this postseason, particularly when she’s got her sights set on a city title.
She’s not the leader, she’s the glue — keeping her team locked in and focused on its collective goal.
“I feel like that’s my job,” Johnson said. “I’m always the one to be like, ‘next play.’ At the end of the day, you can’t let anything hold you down. It creates bigger problems, so I just want to help us move past those kinds of situations and keep us together.”
Johnson hasn’t lost her focus once this season, no matter what has happened on or off the court. She didn’t miss a single practice when her father passed away earlier this year, and her dedication to the game has inspired the Lady Wolves.
“With her going through something like that, it’s heightened and such an extreme scenario,” said Grand Street coach Corey McFarlane. “It puts it all into perspective because she’s still here and she means business.”
Johnson called basketball “an outlet” during the last few weeks, and her off-court experiences have made her more determined to achieve her goals once the playoffs begin next month.
She’s split point guard duties with Maia Fawcett throughout the season, and Johnson is always focused on finding a way to jumpstart her team’s offense.
Johnson averaged a team-high 15.45 points and 3.36 assists per game in 11 league games, finding a way to pad her stat line while also looking for her teammates.
“Since last year, I really settled into the point guard, and I kind of settled into my role,” Johnson said. “I just know what I have to do to help this team. And what I have to do is get to the basket and score.”
The second-seeded Lady Wolves won’t be back on the court until March 5, but Johnson is hardly letting her squad fall of course. In fact, she’s just as determined as ever — checking up on teammates’ grades as often as she runs through drills in practice.
“I feel like I’ve done that by just keeping people on track, especially in school,” said Johnson, who prides herself on her math skills. “I know that’s where it starts. In order to play, you have to be set in school, and I really keep my teammates focused in school.”
Grand Street Campus has come up short of its postseason goal over the last few years, falling to eventual city champion South Shore in the semifinals last season. But this time around Johnson is doing her best to make sure history does not repeat itself.
She’s keeping this team together and she’s ready to prove the detractors wrong.
“When we get there, we’re going to do some damage,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of talk about different schools and different players, but at the end of the day, we have to focus on our program and our school. We want to get our name out there as a good basketball team.”
