Top-ranked Duke trailed by one point in the waning seconds of its ACC game at Virginia in early January. Alana Beard, the team’s star player, missed a shot that would have given Duke the lead.

As the ball caromed toward mid-court, Beard and Virginia’s Karen Jaeger each lunged for the ball. Beard got it and Jaeger was called for a foul. Beard calmly stepped to the line and sank both free throws to keep Duke’s bid for a perfect season alive for a few more games.

“I guess it was the zone I was in,” Beard said. “I wasn’t really thinking about anything else but doing what was best for my team—whether it was rebounding, playing defense or scoring. It wasn’t all about scoring. I always want my teammates to get in on the action. But they saw that I had a hot hand, and they did a good job of getting me the ball in the right position.

“I got on the line and I hit the two free throws, which was no pressure at all. The only thing I said to myself was ‘We’re not going into overtime.’”

Beard did more in that game than just hit the two free throws. She scored 41 points—a Duke women’s basketball record—out of the team’s 60. She was 16-for-30 from the field while the rest of the team was 3-for-29. In the first half, it was even worse, as Beard made the only six field goals (out of 11 attempts) made by the entire Duke team (out of 26).

Was she satisfied?

“I was upset with the way that we played as a team, even though I had a record-setting day. I wasn’t happy because if my team isn’t playing good, it’s not a great game,” she said. “A lot of people try to put all the attention on me, but I hate it that way. It’s not about me. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have my teammates.”

Beard simply is not interested in personal gain, though her personal stats may earn her several player-of-the-year awards at the conclusion of the season. She’s only interested in her team’s success.

“That Virginia game is typical of Alana,” said John Rennie, who coached her AAU team in Shreveport, La. “Most athletes would have stopped, thinking the game was over. She is as competitive as anyone I’ve ever known.

“It’s not about her. It’s about her teammates. She’s not trying to win for Alana Beard. She’s trying to win for her team. She was the same way in high school and AAU ball.”

The one thing Beard doesn’t do is inspire her teammates with rah-rah speeches. “She’s not an extrovert,” Rennie says. “Some people are great at sharing their faith verbally. Others are great at doing it with their actions. She’s definitely one of the latter.”

“Leadership is not necessarily about yelling and telling people what to do,” Beard says. “I don’t like to force anything upon anyone. It’s all by example. That’s the way I like to lead, whether it’s basketball or with God’s Word.”

The example she sets for the Duke team is one of hard work. She was eighth in the nation in scoring at 24.9 points per game through 14 games. Citing outside shooting as one of her weaknesses, she spent most of the off-season working on that aspect of her game. Through those 14 games, she was connecting on 33 percent of her three-pointers.

She credits Rennie and her high school coach, Steve McDowell at Southwood High School in Shreveport, La., with her defensive focus.

“I let everything happen from my defense,” she says. “It’s been instilled in my game at every level I’ve played. When I step on the court, it’s just all about defense. It creates offense.”

“She’s an incredibly coachable athlete,” Rennie said. “You’d tell her something and she’d go out on the floor and do it. She listens intently and works hard. She was always the first at practice and the last to leave.”

Beard can’t imagine being any other way.

“There’s always room to get better,” she says. “God places people in your life who can make you get better at the things at which you need to get better. The same is true in spiritual matters. Shaeeta Brown is one of our assistants. As a team we use her a lot in that role.”

Beard is starting to take that role as well. Before a recent practice, one of her teammates suggested that they pray together. Everyone agreed and Beard bowed her head. “Everyone just looked at me and said, ‘Pray.’ If someone on the team needs to ask me a question, I’m there for them.”

It wasn’t always that way. Even though she attended FCA in high school, she didn’t place her relationship with Christ as the top priority in her life.

“I was definitely a Christian, but I let the other stuff take over. It was all about basketball with me,” she said. “I had to realize that God blessed me with this talent and He wants me to use basketball as a way to deliver His message.”

Cori Close, assistant women’s basketball coach at California-Santa Barbara and a friend of Beard’s since they met at a basketball camp when Beard was in high school, says that Beard has learned that lesson well.

“She wants to please God and walk close to Him,” Close says. “She doesn’t just talk the talk when asked about it in public. She walks the walk in private too.”

Rennie, who has maintained contact with Beard, says that Beard has a unique quality among most student-athletes.

“It’s obvious that her faith and her family are important to her,” he said. “You don’t see that in a lot of student-athletes. I see someone who has taken what God has given her and done everything she can with it. She has worked hard to let that talent glorify Him.”