Asbury Athletics Photo
Grace Bale has had a tumultuous last 15 months after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in April of 2023. She had to miss her AAU season and then only got to play a limited role in 22 games for Taylor County after getting the okay to return to the court.
However, she’s had an impressive summer circuit and the Taylor senior guard now knows where she will be playing her college basketball. She verbally committed to Asbury earlier this week and is thrilled with her decision.
“They have a big Christian atmosphere that I really like. They have nice facilities and I really like coach Chad Mayes and his offense really suits me,” said Bale.
There was also one other perk she really liked.
“They are going to Puerto Rico to play and I always wanted to do that,” she said.
Mayes started recruiting Bale when she was a sophomore and liked her 3-point shooting ability and selfless attitude from day one.
“I just knew this was the one school I really wanted to play for and I wanted to do it before my season started so I could get it off my shoulders,” Bale said. “I did think about waiting and seeing what might happen during the season but I knew Asbury was where I wanted to go and I made my decision. I think he (Mayes) was happy but was also kind of anticipating that I would do this.”
Bale has scored 1,085 points in her career and pulled off 220 rebounds from her guard position. She’s made 97 3-pointers but also has managed to get to the foul line 424 times in three seasons and make 328 free throws.
She led the team in scoring as a freshman (11.2 points per game) and sophomore (16.2) when Taylor was 5th Region runner-up. Her scoring average dipped to 9.2 points per game when her playing time was reduced but that was still second best on the team.
“Mentally it was really hard for the last year. Going from being something to hardly getting to do anything and not playing and just watching others to finally getting back but still not playing as much as I had been,” Bale said.
Taylor has a new coach (Matthew Turner) that has installed a faster playing style that Bale likes.
“We won’t get into a set offense as much. There should be more scoring in transition,” she said.
Bale believes a challenging summer schedule will help her and her teammates this season.
“I think my shot got more consistent this summer. I got stronger. I would go to the weight room multiple times per week and I probably would shoot every day,” she said. “I really tried to make myself a better player and think I did.”
