By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          She was one of the top players in the state in high school, and the Middle Georgia girls Player of the Year as a senior in high school at Southwest.

          A career at Auburn followed, playing for legendary head coach Joe Ciampi. While on The Plains, she met Marquis Daniels, who also played basketball at Auburn.

          They married, and became parents of some athletic young ones, including one planning to follow in her parents’ footsteps in college.

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          But an opponent Askew-Daniels believed she had beaten stormed back several months ago, and cancer took the 44 year old on Monday.

          A life celebratory service will be held Friday afternoon at Lundy Chapel Missionary Baptist Church at 2081 Forest Hill Road.

          Marquis Daniels posted the news on Facebook a little after noon on Tuesday.

“Reality can be your worse nightmare,” he wrote, at the start. “It’s not a second, minute hour or day that goes by I’m not thinking about you, this is a pain that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. When it comes to being great you set the bar” 

          She played at Auburn from 1998-2001, during which the Tigers went 16-11, 20-9, 22-8, and 17-12, reaching the NCAA Tournament twice.

          Askew-Daniels was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in May of 2018.

          She at the time was on the girls basketball staff at her alma mater, coaching with her head coach, Willie Goolsby. She was also a supporter of youth baseball, and was connected with The Factory in Gray, with whom son Antwaine Daniels competes. Teams recently wore pink uniforms at tournament in support of her fight.

          Marquis Daniels has been on the men’s staff since 2018, progressing to director of player development, and daughter Syriah Daniels played basketball and flag football at Auburn High, graduating in May.

          Marquis was seriously injured in a car accident in November of 2019, and his wife only days later discovered a lump in her right breast. There was no exam for several weeks until Marquis left the hospital.

          A mammogram led to a biopsy, and a diagnosis of a ductal carcinoma.

          Surgery and nearly 20 chemo treatments followed, and 15 months after the journey started, she rang the cancer-free bell at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Newnan.

          “If you ever get in a storm, you have to understand the storm is not going to always last,” she said in a long story on www.auburntigers.com chronicling their lives together, and those struggles. “There’s going to be some type of sunlight at the end of the tunnel. Stay prayerful and be encouraged.”

            But the cancer, as it often does, returned, nearly a year ago.

          Leitra Young Maxwell played at Jones County at the same time and was one of scores of teammates and opponents paying tribute on social media Tuesday.

          “Now I know some of you young bucks may think that tall posts that play guard are something new,” she wrote, “but before there was the Bayou Barbie there was Shana.”