Amaris Baker’s winding college hoops road led her to Harcum College, where she’s the nation’s leading scorer

Amaris Baker asked herself, “What am I going to do next?”

The Cardinal O’Hara graduate felt stuck when she entered the transfer portal after one year on the Kennesaw State women’s basketball team. She received little interest, leaving her to question her future in the game.

So Baker, a South Philly native, sought out a program closer to home, and a former coach’s support helped her find that in Harcum College, a junior college in Bryn Mawr.

The sophomore point guard, who is the NJCAA Division II leading scorer with 27.5 points per game, is on an alternate path as she strives to return to Division I basketball. And in the meantime, her focus has turned to helping Harcum College to a NJCAA Division II championship after the Bears (25-1) clinched the district championship for the second time in program history.

No. 5-seeded Harcum will play No. 12 Danville Area Community College in the national tournament at 1 p.m. March 22 in Port Huron, Mich.

Her experience, though, from DI to JUCO, Baker said, is one that helped redefine her vision of playing at the highest level.

“There’s little barriers in the road, and sometimes you have to go through a different pathway,” Baker said. “It’s not going to be a straight road. Nothing’s easy, but that’s definitely the most beautiful thing of it all. If everything was easy, everybody else would have the same story, but when it’s different, it just lets people know it’s OK.”

Baker remembers watching her dad play pickup basketball games, and, during one such game, Baker’s mom, Alena, noticed Amaris mimicking a shooting motion with a baby bottle in one hand.

She saw then that Amaris would have a future in basketball.

The tale her mom tells stuck with Baker, because it represented when it all started. And as the 5-foot-7 guard got older, that meant overcoming the rigors of the game.

During the offseason of Baker’s first year at Kennesaw State, Owls coach Agnus Berenato took a leave of absence because of health complications and later retired after 33 years. When Octavia Blue was hired as the head coach, the staff under Berenato — who recruited Baker — left.

Despite the turnover, Baker wanted to stay in Georgia because she made a commitment to the team. But as each day went by, the distance from home started to weigh on her.

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So she waited until the season was over, talked about it with her family, then decided to enter her name in the portal.

“It was nothing about minutes or things like that,” Baker said. “It was more just the distance from home. I really couldn’t handle that because I’m such a family person. I guess it was just me being so young, like coming out of high school and wanting to be far from home — it just wasn’t for me.”

Baker averaged 15 minutes and three points in 28 games at Kennesaw State. She tied for third in three-point shooting (17 of 54 for 31.5%). However, she suffered an injury that limited her playing time. With minimal collegiate film, not many programs were reaching out to the point guard in the portal.

That’s when she got in touch with Audenried Charter girls’ basketball coach Kevin Slaughter, who led his team to its first Philadelphia Public League title this season. Slaughter helped train Baker when she was in middle school and even while she was at O’Hara.

“I sent her information to La Salle; I sent it to the old Temple staff,” Slaughter said. “I want to say Delaware State took a hard look at her. But things weren’t moving fast enough.”

As August 2022 creeped up, Baker still wanted to remain close to home, so Slaughter, who went to a JUCO in California, mentioned Harcum.

“Basically make that mark, like, be that person — people can look up to me, younger kids, and know that it’s OK to go JUCO,” Baker said.

When Baker joined the Bears during summer workouts, it was an opportunity to start fresh, since most athletes leave JUCO after two years. Second-year head coach Riley Maye knew he needed a leader, and Baker played a large part in filling that role.

“She’s a different type of kid,” Maye said. “Her work ethic is different. After she came on the visit, I said to my assistant, like, ‘We get her, we’re good.’ It has nothing to do with the basketball piece. It had everything to do with her mentality and what she was trying to go after.

“When she’s not working out with me, she’s in our second gym working out every single day going hard. I think her mentality has been great for this team. It has been a pleasure to coach her all year, kind of dreading that I get potentially four more games with her. She has been a program-changing type kid.”

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That drive started at the Murphy Recreation Center in South Philly. Baker and her dad used to go there every morning before school to work on her form and ballhandling skills. Her dad used to say, “while you’re working, everybody’s sleeping.”

At Harcum, she expanded her training to focus on lifting and running. Baker said she slimmed down compared to high school and became faster and stronger.

“My body is different. My mentality is different,” Baker said. “My fitness mindset, I definitely had to build after the transfer portal, like get my mind right.”

She did more than get back on track. Baker ultimately put Harcum women’s basketball on the map, which has helped draw the attention of college coaches.

Maye has spoken with other coaches throughout this season, who remember watching Baker in high school and said, “Wow, that kid got better.”

“The sky’s the limit for her,” Maye said. “I’m very anxious to see like what she looks like in her junior or senior year of college. Her mentality could lead to some type of professional career. I do think that she’s going to be a coach one day. As soon as she’s ready, I’ll be offering her a job.”

“Her mentality could lead to some type of professional career. I do think that she’s going to be a coach one day. As soon as she’s ready, I’ll be offering her a job.”

Baker, though, has put most of the recruiting talk aside ahead of the national tournament because she knows the job isn’t done yet. Afterward, she hopes to make a commitment to a school that aligns with her goals, namely developing as a collegiate athlete and pursuing a professional career in the WNBA or overseas.

“There was times where I’m like ... ‘I don’t even know if I can get myself out of this slump,’” Baker said. “I just went day by day to get myself better. I feel like when my [mentality] was back, everything just flows.”