The Journal-World's All-Area girls basketball team, from left to right, is: Nicole Rockhold and Hailey Kelly, Oskaloosa High; Chantay Caron, Free State; in foreground center from Lawrence High are Tania Jackson, coach Kristin Mallory, Danielle Bird and Taylor Bird; in background center from Tonganoxie High are Liz Baska and Shannon Carlin; and at right are Missy Rome, McLouth, and Kara McFarland, Ottawa.

With her team trailing by seven points at halftime of the state championship game last week in Emporia, Lawrence High senior Danielle Bird did something nobody expected.

As the Lions scrambled to come up with halftime adjustments that might get them back into the game, Bird interjected and spoke with authority.

“I can post up No. 3,” she told her team.

Bird’s matter-of-fact statement was greeted with little more than a few nods and more game-planning.

“I can post up No. 3,” she said again, this time with a more definitive tone. “Get me the ball.”

For those who know her and have watched her play for three years at LHS, the outspoken nature with which Bird delivered her message demonstrated one thing: She had changed. She had stepped out of her shell, for the good of the team, and taken on a role that at one time would have caused her great discomfort.

“Danielle’s come a long way this year,” LHS coach Kristin Mallory said. “I think it’s really important that people understand just what she did to make this team better. She’s always been a good scorer, a good shooter, but this year she really became a leader and put the team on her back at times.”

Bird’s teammates, who saw her transformation firsthand, often were surprised by the senior’s new approach. None more so than her younger sister, LHS junior Taylor Bird and never more than at halftime of the state-title game.

“Last year, if she would’ve done that it would’ve surprised me,” Taylor Bird said. “But she worked a lot harder this year than last year, and was much more of a leader.”

Bird’s numbers don’t demonstrate everything she did for the Lions this season. In helping lead LHS to its third girls state title in school history, Bird led the team in points per game (11.2) while shooting 51 percent from the floor.

In addition, she was second on the team in assists (80), second in rebounding (5.4) and fourth in steals (33). She also had 32 blocks and shot 74 percent from the free-throw line.

But it was her consistent and steady emergence as a leader that made the biggest splash.

“I think she felt the tick of the clock, she felt the end was nearing,” Mallory said. “That’s the kind of urgency you want out of a senior.”

That mind-set became contagious, and by the end of the year, the LHS underclassmen began playing for the seniors.

“I told them that after we won state,” junior forward Tania Jackson said. “We were playing for our seniors. It became really important to send them out on the right note because of everything they did for this team.”