Hard work and love for the game has worked well for Logan Nissley
BISMARCK, N.D. (BVM) — As the final seconds ticked down in the NDHSAA Class A girls basketball state championship game, Bismarck Century sophomore Logan Nissley slowly dribbled the ball up across half court.
The Patriots were up 57-48 over Fargo Davies and now all that stood between them and an undefeated state championship season was a few seconds.
In that moment, you can see the pure joy on Nissley’s face as the culmination of an unprecedented season is finally coming to an end.
That moment you know you’re a State Champ… Congrats to CHS GBB. one by one your goals are becoming reality Lo because of all your hard work! On the team you wanted to do it with, on the stage you wanted to do it on, YOU DID IT! Keep pushin #Nextgoalup#beyondproud pic.twitter.com/bvlBlPK2Uh
— Brad Nissley (@bniss5) March 16, 2021
“Knowing that we were going to be state champs and knowing that all our hard work had paid off, it’s an amazing feeling,” Nissley said. “Ever since I was little it’s been a goal of mine. Having that goal accomplished now it feels really good.”
For Nissley and the rest of the Century team, this was a moment that was a year in the making.
“We knew that we didn’t want what happened last year to happen again,” Nissley said. “We didn’t go out how we wanted to.”
After losing their best player and senior Lauren Ware to a season-ending injury last year, the Patriots went 21-4 but came up short in the state tournament. Losing to Devils Lake before the tournament was canceled early due to COVID.
It was that loss that fueled Century to make the run that they had this year, going 26-0 and winning their third state championship in four years.
Nissley played a pivotal role in the undefeated season. The 5-foot-10 sophomore averaged 21.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.8 steals and 1.8 blocks on her way to first team All-State honors, only the second sophomore in Century history to make first team as a sophomore.
She led the state in scoring and broke seven school records in single-season points per game (21.4), steals per game (3.8), 3-point percentage (46.4%), points (556), assists (100), steals (93) and steals in a single game (8).
Nissley has been named 2020-21 MaxPreps North Dakota High School Girls Basketball Player of the Year and MidcoSN Player of the Year in North Dakota Class A girls basketball.
Although she was on varsity last year and averaged an impressive 13.5 PPG and 7.2 RPG the jump she made this year is phenomenal. Nissley credits her work ethic.
“It never really was I have to go to the gym to get work in, it was me begging my dad to come with me for a third time that day,” Nissley said. “I fell in love with the game so early that I always wanted to be in the gym.”
That love affair with basketball began when she was only three years old. Her parents have told her she just always gravitated towards the sport when she was younger and although she has played multiple sports, Nissley is never too far away from basketball.
“It’s always been basketball since day one. … I think I started playing with a ball in my hands when I was three,” Nissley said.
It did not take long for the young Nissley to turn into a gym rat, going there multiple times a day with her dad to work on her game. By fourth or fifth grade, she was going before school at 6 a.m. training, getting better and loving every second of it.
“I think that since I have such a love for the game it’s fun for me to be in the gym working on my shot,” Nissley said. “It’s fun for me running around garbage cans trying to shoot it like I have a defender on me.”
Her work ethic even increased once she began playing AAU and in particular seventh grade. It was then that she got to play with some older AAU teams and colleges began to take notice.
“After my seventh grade year I really started to put in a lot of time,” Nissley said. “I put in a lot of work when I was younger but when the college looks started coming in I started putting in work where I needed to elevate my game in order to play at that college level.”
To do this, Nissley has even recruited the help of garbage cans, dragging them into the gym to act as defenders as she hits a pull-up jump shot in front of one. The cans cause her to sometimes get puzzled looks from others in the gym, but her 46.4% from 3-point range this year seems to suggest that the trash cans are working.
But behind all the hours in the gym, the drills and the shots she puts up is genuine love for the game of basketball.
“It’s such a blessing in a little ball that’s what I always tell my friends, it’s a blessing in a ball,” Nissley said.
It radiates from her to the point where it would not be a surprise to see Nissley in the gym with the same look she had as she dribbled out the clock in the state championship. And it’s that love for the game that will see Nissley continue to improve upon her game and further her career well into the future.
“I still got a long way to go but I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Nissley said.
