STATE EXTRA: SACCO: R.E. Lee’s McDonough made the right choice — both times

Her stats don’t exactly light up the scoreboard.

(She averages 3.2 points per game and 2.7 boards.)

Ah, but those are just numbers anyhow? Isn’t the true mark of a heady basketball player the other little things that don’t add to the team’s total points, but help it scrape and crawl its way to the Group AA, Division 3 Final Four?

Of course it is.

Maybe that explains why, on the first day of tryouts for the R.E. Lee basketball team, it just seemed like something was missing. Something tall. Something with red hair. More than just a member of the team.

“Not having her around was like missing a family member,” says Lee coach Jeremy Hartman.

It’s not like Blair McDonough enjoyed her initial decision. Heck, ask her about her preseason adventure all these months later and, even with everything long forgotten and her team heading to a Final Four appearance, McDonough is a little embarrassed to talk about it.

Tell her that word on the street is she almost didn’t spend this season wearing an R.E. Lee basketball jersey and she looks toward one of her assistant coaches. Maybe she’s looking for a save, hoping one of the coaches will come over and pull her away so she won’t have to answer that darned question.

But that’s all over, right? Why are we bringing this up?

The answer is simple, her initial decision was made for all the right reasons.

“Soccer is my first sport that I’ve grown up with,” she says between long pauses. “And, this year, I didn’t know if I could handle two [sports] and keep my academics straight.”

So she missed the first day of tryouts and, Hartman says, some girls on the team called her afterward to tell her how things went.

How could McDonough, who played all those games on the same AAU team with the Lee Ladies, not be part of what was going to happen? Remember, this is a team that knew something big was brewing before the season even started, when Internet message boards and word-of-mouth spread like wildfire on Little Spy Mountain. The smoke signals all but read that this R.E. Lee team, though young, was going to be good.

McDonough wasn’t worried about missing playing for a good team. What she really missed was the camaraderie she had built up with the rest of the girls and, after a few of the girls called her after that first night to let her know how things went, the junior couldn’t take it anymore.

“I called coach and said, ‘I cannot not be part of that family,’ ” she says. It was music to Hartman’s ears.

“Blair is a ‘glue’ player,” he says. “She’s doesn’t fill the typical stat sheet. ... But what people miss that I see are the loose balls she keeps alive. The deflections by having proper positioning and having a hand in the passing lane.”

Hartman sees heady plays where most will only see her red hair pulled back tight in a pony tail.

“She’s a leader in every sense of the word,” he says.

A leader, mind you, who had to work to get back on the team. McDonough didn’t get the playing time right away, she had to make up some running.

“I had to talk to the team and make sure they were OK with it,” she says of coming back.

Well, the team’s decision was a no-brainer.

“I think we’re all glad she came to her senses,” Hartman says.

His jack of all trades would agree; It was good to come back.

“Very good,” she says. “Very good.”