African American & African Diaspora Studies

AADS Double Major Lucy Mason, UNCG Basketball Star

Posted on October 14, 2015

Lucy Mason, an All-Around All-Star

Senior Lucy Mason is best known at UNCG for her stellar performance on the basketball court, but she’s also an all-star in the classroom.

The 5-foot-7-inch guard from Stone Mountain, Georgia is third in the nation and leads the Southern Conference in scoring (24.5 points per game). On Dec. 28, Mason broke Anglie Polk-Jones’ 26-year old scoring record. The month before, she broke a 35-year-old UNCG record for individual points scored in a game with 42 against High Point University.

Off the court, she’s double-majoring in economics and African American and African Diaspora studies. Academically, despite her demanding practice and game schedule, Mason maintains a 3.84 grade point average. Although she graduated with her degree in African American and African Diaspora studies in December, she’ll be back in the spring to finish her degree in economics.

Last summer, Mason had the opportunity to dig deeper into her interest in history by researching and writing about many of UNCG’s outstanding African American faculty, staff and students for University Archives. One of the posts she wrote features Angie Polk Jones, former basketball player and current principal at the Middle College at UNCG – the very woman whose scoring record Mason hopes to break later this season.

“There were a lot of interesting stories,” Mason said. “It makes you want to go out and do great things.”

And Mason is doing great things. She says it’s the competition that drives her to excel in everything she does.

“I come from a family of athletes. There’s always competition in everything,” she said.

Mason began playing basketball competitively when she was only 6 years old. In high school, she played basketball on a club team and at school. She was also an all-region softball player and finished top-10 in the state for 100-meter hurdles.

When she began looking at colleges, Mason had basketball scholarship offers from a number of different schools across the Southeast, including UNCG. Meeting with UNCG’s women’s basketball team and coaching staff “really helped solidify” her decision, she said, but the deciding factor was UNCG’s stellar academics.

“I knew I wanted to major in something to do with African American studies,” she said. “None of the other schools had that major.”

Constant growth and excellence takes hard work, and Mason’s hard work – both on and off the court – has been recognized.

She’s been named to the Division I-AAA Athletics Directors Association’s scholar-athletes team, the Southern Conference’s All-Conference Second Team and the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association Tirst Team.

After graduation, Mason is considering pursuing a career coaching women’s basketball.

“I still want to be around sports,” she said. “I want to be hands-on.”

Story by Jeanie Groh, University Relations
Photo by Carlos Morales, UNCG Athletics