Former King’s Fork High School basketball star Ta’Shauna “Sugar” Rodgers ascended to the top of Division I women’s college basketball among scorers at one point this season, recently averaging 25.3 points per game for the Georgetown University Lady Hoyas.

“I’m not going to say it really doesn’t mean much, but that just means I’ve been working hard over the summer, and I’ve been putting in work on and off the court,” Rodgers said.

As of Jan. 24, she is ranked third in the nation with a 24.0-point average.

Hoyas head coach Keith Brown described his star player.

“Sugar was good before she got to Georgetown,” he said. “What we’ve been able to do is cultivate her ability on and off the court.”

Rodgers credited her learning experiences at King’s Fork and the Boo Williams Amateur Athletic Union basketball program.

“I thank both,” she said. “My teachers were pushing me — come to school and do my work and get my grades. It was lot of help as far as my high school. And it was also a lot of help with Boo (Williams), just because you get to see the different college coaches come to the game and they get to see you play and just the respect that they have for Boo (Williams).”

It would be fair to say that Rodgers has transformed the women’s basketball program at Georgetown since she entered it during the 2009-2010 season. Two years before she arrived, the Hoyas had experienced their first winning season. The following year, they went to the National Invitation Tournament, the school’s first post-season play since 1993.

“And then when she got (here), she wouldn’t settle for that,” Brown said. “She wanted to go to the (National Collegiate Athletic Association) tournament. So, she did things on the basketball court to help us get to that plateau.”

Georgetown has gone to the NCAA tournament every year Rodgers has been on the team and in her sophomore year, Georgetown got as far as the Sweet Sixteen before losing to top-seeded University of Connecticut.

When she joined the team, she was one year behind the school’s highest ranked recruiting class in school history and still established herself as someone who needed to have the basketball in her hands. This year, with those girls having graduated, she is the focal point of every defense, but still performing at a stellar level.

Brown said Rodgers has Women’s National Basketball Association scouts coming to every Hoyas game.

“Sugar’s going to be in the top five draft picks,” Brown said.

As if graduating from college and playing professionally were not impressive enough, Rodgers, an English major, is also penning an autobiography with the working title, A Bittersweet Life.

“My first goal is to graduate, and I’m hoping to publish my book at the end of the semester,” she said. “To graduate is my biggest goal. That’s what I came to school for, not just basketball, but I want to go to the WNBA and I hope it breaks all out in the end.”