Albany State University Lady Golden Rams sophomore guard April Thomas, the 2010-2011 Bainbridge High School female senior athlete of the year, is leading her team into this week’s Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament in Atlanta.

“We will go where April takes us in the tournament,” Lady Golden Rams coach Robert Skinner said recently. “We go as she goes. If she can get a good game in, we need to play behind her.”

Thomas, the daughter of Sharlyn Smith and Lawrence Thomas, helped lead coach Latreisha Moon’s Bainbridge High School Lady Cats to a 21-7 record, a Region 1-AAAA Sub-Region championship and a berth in the second round of the State Class AAAA Basketball Tournament as a senior.

Thomas, who averaged 20.1 points a game for the Lady Golden Rams this season, is the second leading scorer in the conference.

“There really isn’t any pressure to score,” Thomas told John Millikan of The Albany Herald recently. “I don’t think about it like I have to go out there and do this and do that or we won’t win.

“I pray before every game and just ask God to allow me to play my best. I just go out there and play and don’t think about it.”