Sophomore forward Kelly Hogan’s inaugural year on the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy varsity girls’ basketball team featured an impressive ascent.

“I think as the year went on, she continued to get better and better and become more assertive,” Lady Saints coach Kim Aston said.

Hogan’s effectiveness on the court reached new heights in the state tournament, helping lead to her status as Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

She produced 18 points and 20 rebounds in NSA’s 64-48 victory over Norfolk Christian School in the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division II state semifinals on Nov. 27 in Charlottesville.

“She came out right from the beginning, getting offensive rebounds and just was really able to change the flow of the game right from the start,” Aston said.

Hogan’s effort helped propel the Lady Saints to their first state title game appearance in school history.

Though the Lady Saints fell 57-25 in that championship game the next day against The Miller School of Albemarle, which is known for its size and strength inside, it could not be said that Hogan backed down.

“She did not at all,” Aston said.

Despite the difficulties, Hogan gave NSA a second scorer in double figures by contributing 11 points and also had seven rebounds, including four on the offensive side of the ball.

Hogan’s performances in the state tourney gave her confidence for the 2015-16 campaign.

“It showed me that I could, in the future, get more rebounds for the regular season,” she said. “With more effort, you can do anything, really.”

For the 2014-15 regular season, Hogan averaged 5.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

She had to work her way into the starting lineup, but her value to the team was significant even before starting.

“We knew that we had to have her on the floor for rebounding purposes,” Aston said. “We pretty quickly saw that she kind of had to pick up where Kaylor (Nash) left off last year.”

This meant Hogan had to learn the power forward position after having established herself as a center on the junior varsity level.

She was part of Nansemond-Suffolk’s JV team last season that went undefeated and won the conference championship.

Though this past season was her first winter on varsity, “she has played with us in the fall league since eighth grade,” Aston said.

Though she still had some growing to do as an eighth-grader before she could play varsity in the winter, “her rebounding was off the charts even then,” Aston said, noting NSA’s fall competition included public schools like Landstown, First Colonial and Green Run high schools.

Hogan recalled the start of her hoops career in Portsmouth.

“I played with my older brother at the (Churchland) YMCA when I was 6,” she said. “I wasn’t very good, but I really liked it.”

Her father, Chris Hogan, who played basketball in high school, got her into the sport.

“To be honest, she was a little bit timid,” he said of when she first started. “Watching her play now is kind of hard to believe.”