When the Adidas 3SSB Palmetto Road Championships reached the quarterfinals, the bracket pitted California-based Seven Days — led by Kaleena Smith, perhaps the most recognizable player in girls high school basketball — against Mass Rivals and Fope Ayo, a highly-ranked but lesser-known prospect.
Seven Days won, 61-48, on July 20, and Smith strutted her stuff with 23 points and a dominant second half. But Ayo was quietly the second-best player in matchup, collecting 13 points and eight rebounds. On rare defensive possessions, Ayo would switch onto Smith, with Ayo's towering, 6-foot-5 frame juxtaposed against the ultra-quick, 5-foot-6 Smith. Alarm bells rang in Ayo's mind that she was about to be on the wrong end of a viral clip, but Smith didn't score directly on her.
"In my head, I was like, 'Oh, this is not funny. Switch back, come back, this is not a good matchup,'" Ayo said. "And she didn't drive. She picked up the ball, and I was like, 'Oh thank God.' And it happened twice — and I think she shot a 3, but she missed the first time, and then she just passed the second time. And I was like, 'Oh thank goodness.'"
That's a snapshot of the Fope Ayo experience. The rising senior at Austin Prep continues to pleasantly surprise herself and anyone who watches with how far she's come in barely five years of basketball. Her role remains unglamorous and underappreciated. But in her No. 34 national ranking, her 30-plus Division 1 offers and her growing winning impact, Ayo (Methuen, Mass.) shows the true post player is still very much in style.
