The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy girls’ basketball team enjoyed a stellar 2013-14 regular season and it received conference accolades to show for it.

Sophomore point guard Harper Birdsong and senior guard/forward Jessica Pieroni made the all-conference first team, senior guard Macy Mears made the second team and Kim Aston won TCIS Coach of the Year.

The selections were made by votes from the head coaches of each of the teams in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools. The votes were based specifically on performances in the eight conference games that concluded the regular season, but Aston said she thinks they take the whole year into consideration.

“You never know what the people are looking for, but I guess I feel good about the fact that my peers thought enough of me to vote for me for Coach of the Year,” Aston said.

The Lady Saints finished 17-2 in the regular season and went 8-0 in conference play, despite having to play all eight games in 12 days due to weather delays. And NSA won those eight contests by an average of 27 points, with one of them being a 70-point blowout over Peninsula Catholic High School.

Aston has won the Coach of the Year honor seven or eight times during her coaching career in the Southeastern District and the TCIS, for both basketball and softball.

Noting that she has had essentially the same team at NSA for three years now, with only a few players coming and going, she deflected credit for the team’s 2013-14 success.

“I really think the kids have been the ones who have made all the difference this year,” she said.

Her players have continued to improve, including Harper Birdsong, who earned her second all-conference first team honor, despite being only a sophomore.

“I think Harper probably, in my opinion, is the best all-around offensive player in the conference,” Aston said.

Though some players may score more points, Aston said, no one sets up others for baskets in addition to scoring her own points, like Birdsong does.

“She’s a very unselfish player,” the coach said. “Most kids of Harper’s ability don’t particularly like to share the ball as much as she does.”

Birdsong averaged 15.8 points, seven assists and five rebounds per game during the regular season. The points and assists averages represent a nearly four-point and two-assist improvement on last year’s marks.

Jessica Pieroni made the All-TCIS first team for the third year in a row and showed a clear expansion of her skills this season, beyond once again leading her team in scoring.

About five or six games into the 2013-14 campaign, Aston witnessed a change in Pieroni.

“I guess she just made up her mind that she was going to start rebounding, and I think that made all the difference in the world,” the coach said.

Pieroni grabbed important offensive rebounds, scored points in the paint and used this aggressiveness to get to the free throw line. She averaged 17.2 points, five rebounds and two assists per game.

“I really thought Harper and Jessica are probably two of the best four players in the conference this year,” Aston said.

Macy Mears made the all-conference second team for the second consecutive year.

“I was happy for her, because I think that sometimes there are always kids that get overlooked a little bit,” Aston said.

Mears contributes on offense by hitting some big shots from beyond the arc, but she is also her team’s defensive stopper.

“She typically always draws the toughest match-up from the guard position on the other team,” Aston said, including guarding players like Roach.