Former King’s Fork High School and Georgetown University basketball star Sugar Rodgers is giving good cause to vote her into the 2015 WNBA All-Star Game.

The New York Liberty shooting guard recently earned the chance to be a starter for the first time in her professional career, and she has been playing well in the new role.

Through four games, she has averaged 15.7 points, 3.5 rebounds 2.5 assists and one steal, helping the Liberty go 3-1, improving the team’s overall 2015 record to 6-4.

“I can definitely say it’s been a long time coming,” Rodgers said of achieving this level of success in the WNBA. “I just had to be patient.”

She added, “I know I worked hard in the offseason, I knew I put in the time and the effort, and I knew my time was coming, eventually.”

Liberty coach Bill Laimbeer has had no doubts about Rodgers’ defensive capabilities.

“Her defense is WNBA-caliber,” he said, noting no one tends to talk about that. “But her offense hasn’t clicked in the WNBA yet until recently.”

He said he and his staff employed a couple of drills for her recently that may have helped her turn the corner.

Helping things click for her have been “my teammates, my support system, my coaches pushing me every day saying, ‘We know you’re going to turn the corner,’” Rodgers said. “And I just kept believing that eventually I was going to turn the corner, and it just happened to happen now, and it feels so good. I just trust my training.”

She said her new confidence is not restricted to just one part of her game.

“Just everything about my play I’m definitely confident in now,” she said. “I know early in the season I was shooting the ball horribly.”

She said she realized she was in a shooting slump.

“My coaches and teammates were like, ‘Just keep shooting,’ but they know I’m a good shooter,” she said.

On Sunday, she helped the Liberty defeat the visiting Los Angeles Sparks 79-70 by pouring in a career-high 23 points on 7-for-14 shooting from the field, including going 3-for-6 from behind the three-point line.

“Hopefully this continues because if it does, it’s going to be a big positive for the New York Liberty and for Sugar Rodgers,” Laimbeer said.

Explaining the reasons that prompted him to give Rogers her first professional start, he said, “We needed more of a veteran presence in the starting lineup. We were starting two rookies.”

Additionally, “She’d been making great progress in the gym, offensive-wise,” he said.

Noting her inaugural start on June 21 was a sink-or-swim circumstance, he said, “She stood up and performed admirably.”

Contributing to a 73-64 win against the host Atlanta Dream that day, she scored 17 points on 50 percent shooting from the field, and she went 7-for-8 from the free throw line. She also handed out four assists and grabbed three rebounds in 31 minutes of play.

And Rodgers knows what must be done to keep a spot in the starting lineup.

“You just have to prove yourself every game, every practice,” she said. “It starts in practice. So, prove yourself in the practice and prove yourself in the game.”

The WNBA is welcoming fan voting to determine who competes in the Boost Mobile WNBA All-Star Game that will air live on ABC on July 25 at 3:30 p.m.

Visit www.wnba.com/asb to learn how to vote for Rodgers at the website, via the WNBA app, Twitter and Facebook. The opportunity to vote ends on July 9 at 9 p.m.