By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
After an outstanding 1,000 point career at Peebles, Payton Johnson has picked up right where she left off as a freshman for Coach Dave Smalley’s Rio Grande RedStorm women’s basketball squad.
In her freshman campaign for the 25-5 RedStorm women, Johnson is averaging 24 minutes a game, 8.8 points per game and 3.5 rebounds per outing. With those statistics, Johnson was recently honored by the River States Conference, being named Third Team All-Conference.
Another graduate of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, Ripley’s Azyiah Williams, was also honored, named to the All-RSC Second Team. Williams, in her senior season, has broken the Rio Grande school record for career assists and is averaging 7.7 points and 6.6 assists per game.