For her first two seasons at Kearny, Makayla David’s primary role was to be a shooter. A role she undeniably did well as evidenced by an incredible 154 3-pointers.
But as the dynamic guard entered her junior season, it was time for David to expand her game, most notably as a distributor.
“Makayla has really taken on the role of a point guard this year,” Kearny head coach Jody Hill said. “I know in the past we’ve had other girls who can alleviate that pressure for her and we could put Makayla on the win to be a shooter. But this year, we have the ball in her hands a lot more. Her three-point attempts are down from what it has been because she’s more of a penetrator and she’s making some great passes now.”
While not quite the same way as before, David’s scoring touch has remained unchanged and on Tuesday against McNair, she became just the 12th girl in Kearny history to score her 1,000th point.
David, who set the milestone with a lefty layup late in the first quarter, is The Observer Co-Athlete of the Week.
David entered the game needing 11 points and wanted to make sure she got those points early.
“There was a little bit of pressure. A thousand points is such a huge milestone and definitely an amazing thing to accomplish,” said David. “I definitely wanted to do it early in the game, definitely before halftime. I didn’t think it’d be that fast, but I’m just glad I got it done early and got it off my shoulders.”
“You could tell she was cool as a cucumber, just ice in her veins and she went out and played like it was any other game,” Hill said. “She hit 11 in the first quarter pretty quickly and then that was done and said with.”
David went on to finish with 19 points and five assists, making five 3-pointers in the win. She added 15 points in Thursday’s blowout over University Academy Charter, then scored 19 the next day with five assists in a win over Lyndhurst that improved Kearny’s record to 11-1. David has now scored 1,042 points and counting for her career.
For the season, David is averaging 17.8 points, 4.2 assists and 2.8 steals per game, all career-highs.
“I’m very happy I have a bigger role now because the role I have now is definitely preparing me for college basketball,” said David. “Being able to defend at a high level, being able to play on both sides of the floor, defense and offense, being able to score, play good defense on a really good player, being able to go on offense, score and being able to assist and get my teammates involved is very important. I’m definitely improving and doing that this season.”
“Her game has gotten a lot better with her ability to distribute the ball to make us a more well-rounded team,” Hill said. “What we’re trying to preach is share the ball, hit the open player and more team ball so we’re harder to defend.
“She’s an extremely unselfish player. We always talk about what’s best for the team and she is 100-percent on board to do whatever she feels will make this team win.”
With more than a season-and-a-half left in her high school career, there’s a strong possibility that bigger scoring milestones could be in reach for David. But her focus isn’t on those individual goals.
Instead, the focus remains getting herself and teammates better.
“My goal is getting better, making my teammates better, getting everyone involved,” David said. “I want to continue to do my thing and just create and do better for myself as well as for my teammates.”
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)