by Chris Hunt

On Dec. 29, more than 50 friends and family of former North Mecklenburg girls basketball star Devona Allgood filled a large section of Davidson College’s Belk Arena to watch the Davidson Wildcats play the Princeton Tigers. Allgood, a Huntersville native, shined in her return to the Lake Norman area, scoring 15 points and pulling down a team-high eight rebounds, helping the Tigers to a 67-61 victory.

“It was very exciting to come back and play in front of my hometown,” said Allgood. “It was great to show everybody back home where I’ve gone off to when I was away. It was a huge deal for me because it was the only time I get to play college basketball close to home. I wasn’t sure how many times I would get to come down south and play in front of my home fans.”

Allgood was a four-year letter winner who graduated from North Meck after the 2007-08 season. She was named to the all-conference team twice during her high school career and averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks as a senior, leading the Vikings to the 2007-08 4A regional tournament.

Since then, the 6-foot-3 former Viking has shined at Princeton, which improved to 9-3 with the win over Davidson. As a junior, Allgood’s started every game at center, averaging 12.1 points, which is second best on the team. She’s also the second-leading rebounder with 6.8 per contest and tops the Tigers in blocked shots this season.

In her college career, Allgood has been named the Ivy League Player of the Week three times and was picked for last year’s All-Ivy League second team. Last week’s game against the Wildcats was her chance to show her friends and family just that – how much she’s grown as a basketball player – and Princeton’s victory over Davidson was a little more than just the icing on the cake.

“I wanted to win this game really bad,” said Allgood. “I can’t come back home and just lose (laughs). People are asking why I went to the Ivy League and (I wanted to show them) this is why. We’re pretty good, too.”