Chattanooga's Akia Harris, a 13-year-old GPS rising eighth-grader, played basketball for the Atlanta-based Georgia Pistols Elite this year, and the Pistols finished second in the AAU Division I seventh-grade national tournament Friday at Clarksville, Tenn.
Point guard Harris averaged 10 points, five assists and four steals a game in the tournament for the Pistols, who lost 53-46 to Tennessee Team Pride in the championship game. The Pistols went 55-4 this season.
Harris, who played the previous four AAU seasons for the Tennessee Xtreme, also plays soccer and runs track at GPS and has a 3.0 grade point average. Beginning in February, she commuted twice a week to Atlanta to practice with the preseason nationally third-ranked team and was committed to tournaments virtually every weekend.
She had played against the Pistols last year.
"I liked how they did things and how they pushed the ball up the court," Harris said. "And I liked how they welcomed me like I was part of the family."
Harris and some of her Pistols teammates have been invited to the Fila national camp Oct. 1-2 in Louisville, Ky.