Congratulations, Lil Bit!!

(Gaston Gazette Newspaper)

The nickname “Lil Bit” has stuck with Nikkyana McCaskill for a long time.

Imagine how tiny she must have looked as a 3-year-old girl dribbling a basketball while playing on a team of 5- and 6-year-old boys. It was about a year later that she remembers acquiring the nickname while playing recreation basketball at the Erwin Center.

The name still rings true today as McCaskill — all five feet of her — stars as a senior for the Forestview High School basketball team.

McCaskill is almost always the shortest player on the court, but she’s been able to overcome her lack of height in some cases and even use her small frame to her advantage in other situations.

“That girl’s amazing, and the fact that it took her to her senior year to score those 1,000 (career) points is kind of shock to me,” West Iredell coach David Parsons said after McCaskill contributed 23 points, six assists and four steals in Forestview’s 60-41 playoff win against West Iredell on Friday.

“She’s not afraid to go in the trees (against taller players), and when we started taking that away, (she made) the outside shot. She did a very good job of the inside-outside game.”

McCaskill averages a team-high 15.2 points per game and also leads the team with 3.9 assists entering Forestview’s second-round playoff game Monday at Northern Guilford. McCaskill ranks second on the team in steals at 2.9 per game and also averages 3.2 rebounds.

“She’s our little sparkplug and she is our steady influence, there’s no question,” Forestview coach Kevin Gurganus said. “She’s our coach on the floor. Sometimes she’s thinking what I’m thinking as far as plays, and this year I’ve let her call more plays than what she has in the past. That’s big to have.”

McCaskill scored her 1,000th career point during the fourth quarter of Friday’s game. The milestone was a long time coming for a player who made the varsity team as a freshman but joined a host of other guards on the roster that first year and thus faced limited playing time.

Gurganus believes the competition against better guards during practice made McCaskill better in the long run. In fact, she often faced better opposition in practice than she did in some games, Gurganus said.

Well before she arrived at Forestview, McCaskill did something that was sure to lead to a solid basketball career.

“I used to play with the boys when I was younger all the way up until middle school,” McCaskill said. “Eighth grade was actually my first year playing with girls.”

And now here she is, the leader of a team that won the Big South 2A/3A Conference title and has reached the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2012, McCaskill’s freshman season.

As the No. 9 seed in the 3A West, Forestview (19-5) will travel to face eighth-seeded Northern Guilford (20-5) in Monday’s second round, and McCaskill will try to extend her high school career by at least one more game.

“I’m happy. I’m excited,” McCaskill said. “We’re going to play hard every game and try to win.”

Phillip Gardner: 704-869-1843; twitter.com/gazettephil