At 5-foot-7, Sumayah Sugapong didn’t have the physical presence of La Jolla Country Day School teammate Breya Cunningham. As a scorer, she never put the ball in the basket like Torreys alumni Kelsey Plum, Candice Wiggins or Marrisa Rivera.
But Country Day head coach Terri Bamford, who is in her 25th year, with two WNBA players, 40-something girls who have gone on to the Division I college level, 48 all-league stars and six San Diego Section Players of the Year under her belt, had no hesitation calling Sugapong “one of our greats.”
For Bamford, one sequence of events illustrates why.
Down five points in the closing moments of the 2022 CIF Regional Championship against Los Angeles powerhouse Sierra Canyon, Bamford ran a flare screen for Sugapong on the right side of the floor. She took the , elevated and drilled a three-pointer.
Sierra Canyon missed a free throw on the ensuing possession, and with Country Day back on offense, Bamford again called for a flare screen for Sugapong, this time on the left side of the court. The ball found the bottom of the net, and the quick flurry briefly put the Torreys ahead, though Sierra Canyon would go on to win 63-62.
“That sums up what kind of kid and player she is,” Bamford said. “I’ve been coaching a long time, and that’s really hard to teach, that confidence and toughness. Some people have it, some people don’t. Confidence in big moments and big games and big situations and wanting the ball. You might miss the shot. That doesn’t faze her. Those are the special kids.”
“Some of it comes from how I am as a person,” said Sugapong, a 2023 Country Day graduate who remained in La Jolla and is now a sophomore starting point guard at UC San Diego. “The bigger part is just knowing how much work I’ve put in. All the time I’ve spent in the gym working on my shot is what gives me the confidence to keep shooting if I’ve missed two, three, four. I know the work will translate in the game.”
Sugapong, a four-year varsity player with the Torreys, was a team captain as a junior and senior. As a freshman, she played a key role coming off the bench for Country Day, which was 32-1 and the top-ranked team in the state when the season was shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of my best memories were made playing basketball at Country Day,” she said. “My freshman year, I played behind Te-Hina Paopao [now a fifth-year senior at the University of South Carolina and coming off a national championship]. That was awesome, getting to practice and watch her work out every day. We were going on to the state championship, but that got canceled because of COVID.”
Last year, as a UCSD freshman, Sugapong started 31 games for the 12-19 Tritons, scoring 14 points per contest on the way to being named the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year.
“I was nervous to start. I didn’t know how it was going to go,” Sugapong said. “I knew I’d have a big role as a starting point guard. They just threw me out there and it just came to me. I worked through a lot of frustration and mistakes. All that helped me come into this year stronger. I think last year was a good development year.”
With her large Chula Vista-based family in attendance, Sugapong scored 22 and 25 points, respectively, against Boise State and Montana at the 2023 USD Winter Classic.
“I’ve never scored that much before,” she said. “For me to know I can do that against good teams was a confidence boost for sure. Coming from Country Day, where five people on the court can score, I’ve been able to explore a little bit more with my game. Opening my midrange was something I was looking for as a freshman.”
Sugapong’s uptick in scoring comes as little surprise to her former high school coach.
“We played a national schedule her junior and senior year, flying all over the country, playing the best of the best,” Bamford said. “She played against Power 5 players and she was able to hold her own. … That prepared her for the next level.”
Sugapong agreed, saying “We were traveling to the East Coast playing top programs. A lot of those girls from those programs are now playing in high major college conferences. That gave me a taste of college, playing against that high skill level.”
Another key to her development, Sugapong said, was learning how to make offensive reads from Bamford, or “T-Bam,” as she called her.
“The shooting was a big aspect of Country Day,” Sugapong said. “Also, learning to play the game making reads. In college, we don’t run too many sets. In high school, [Bamford] gave us an opportunity to read the defense, take what they are giving you. That’s really translated to the college level, where [we] play off each other and play within the flow of the game.”
Four games into her sophomore season, Sugapong was averaging 10 points per outing for the Tritons, who started 1-3.
Her expectations are high, however.
“When we get in rhythm, we will be really good this year,” Sugapong said. “We are working out the beginning-of-the-year nerves. Scoring will come with adjusting these next few games — reading the defense and leaning into my teammates.
“I want to be a more efficient scorer. But if I am not scoring, I am going to be looking to help wherever I can. I’m trying to step up as a leader. I’ve been working on that with the freshmen and the new girls coming in.”
Bamford called Sugapong “our best communicator and one of our leaders.”
“I don’t think they come any better as a person,” she added. ♦
