Anastasia Gillam starts every game the same way.
After the Calhoun Falls girls basketball team finishes its team warmup, Gillam heads to a corner. From there, she begins firing shots from behind the arc, taking the five shots necessary, two corner, two elbow and one from the top of the key, to move around the world.
After her teammate Autumn Thomas completes the drill, Gillam is back at it, completing the exercise three or four times before she heads to the free throw line to drain a couple of shots before the start of the game.
“It just prepares me for shooting the ball,” Gillam said. “Just helping me build my confidence.”
Confidence isn’t something Gillam is lacking. Why should she?
She’s one of the top players on her team and one of the best players in the state at her age, making an impact for Calhoun Falls as an eighth grader.
Gillam started for the Flashes last year as a seventh grader, and made a big impact for the Flashes, who reached the second round of the playoffs last year. She finished the year with a 40-point game, scored 18 points to lead the way for the Flashes in their first playoff game and hit clutch free throws late in the year to kickstart their region schedule a year ago.
“From last year to this year, I think she’s actually developed more on the court, and I think she’s leading more on the court this year,” Calhoun Falls coach Joseph Cade said. “Last year, she was a little younger, but she was already up to her potential of playing high school. I’m very pleased with her attitude this year. She’s really progressing a lot.”
When her school season ended in February, Gillam moved on to AAU where she dominated for the Greenwood Storm and she spent her summer traveling around the South, playing in events in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Indiana.
“That helps a lot because when I play AAU, I play up, so it just prepared me for playing (on varsity),” Gillam said. “It’s better players. I have to work harder and train.”
Alongside her AAU play, the eighth grader was selected for the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association Elite Camp, which was made up of the best players around the state. She was one of five eighth graders and one of four players from the Lakelands selected to play in the camp.
“Honestly, it was difficult, because it wasn’t like playing people from around here,” Gillam said. “I honestly feel like it made me better. It prepared me for a lot of things, so this season has been kind of easy.
Through nine games this season, Gillam has showcased the hard work that she’s put in at various levels, scoring at least 20 points in at least five games this season. Alongside her scoring, Gillam is a highlight factory with her ball handling and passing ability, driving between multiple defenders on her way to the rim where she can either finish or pass to an open teammate.
“She’s an amazing point guard. She has that peripheral vision, so she doesn’t have to be looking to see when you’re open,” Cade said. “She has great ball handling skills, but that comes not just from the basketball season. She plays AAU ball and if you go down the road by her house, she’s always on the court with a ball in her hand.”