Katy Cinco Ranch star Aniya Foy raises game to greater heights

Kansas State commit is ranked 46th nationally and No. 5 in Texas, in the Class of 2025, by ESPN

Aniya Foy likes to dance when music is playing, but the Katy Cinco Ranch star and Kansas State commit is all business when the ball tips. / Dennis Silva II

When the music starts pumping, Aniya Foy starts dancing.

For her coaches and teammates at Katy Cinco Ranch High School, this is nothing new during practices. But for anyone else who only watches the senior guard once the ball tips on Tuesdays and Fridays, it might come as a surprise.

“Aniya is very goofy,” coach Levar Brown said. “She’s so stoic when she’s playing, so you don’t really get to see her outside personality. But she loves what she’s doing, she loves her teammates and she loves to have fun.”

It’s just a different kind of groove the four-star recruit and Kansas State signee brings to the court.

The 6-foot Foy, ranked 46th nationally, and fifth in Texas, in the Class of 2025 by ESPN, is off to a dominant start this season.

Foy is averaging 24.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.9 steals and 2.4 assists per game for the 11-3 Cougars. She’s doing so at an efficient clip, shooting 54% from the field.

“Just getting downhill and always taking the first open shot I see,” Foy said. “When I see what I first see, take that option rather than second-guessing. Being aggressive.”

Brown may be in his first year as Cinco Ranch’s head coach but he’s been watching Foy get buckets since she was in the seventh grade.

When he got on campus last summer, Brown was set on making life easier for his precocious star.

“A lot of the things she did was just the hardest possible shot she could take,” Brown said. “And she made a lot, and it was beautiful. But now she’s starting to realize she doesn’t have to do that much. Understanding when and where to take shots and seeing the floor, understanding what needs to get done and when.”

Foy is playing more off the ball this year. It makes the defense think, cognizant of her whereabouts at all times.

Take the Cougars’ 61-52 district-opening win Nov. 19 over Seven Lakes, the reigning 19-6A champion.

Foy had 26 points, seven steals, six assists and six rebounds. She made 12 of 20 shots. She was coolly minimalist, harnessing the number of dribbles before a shot, or running out in transition to get easy points.

A physical scorer, Foy, who is averaging 4.2 free throws and one 3-pointer made per game, bullied defenders around the basket or used her ballhandling and skill to size up easy looks from the perimeter.

“I’m going to have mismatches,” she said.

None of that is news.

But by moving around more on offense, and not being on the ball so much, Foy is opening things up for others. Three of her teammates average at least 5.2 points per game, including senior guard Camille Torrence at 11.9.

Foy knows as she goes, Cinco Ranch goes.

“My teammates feed off my energy,” she said. “So being that type of player, you’ve got to lead by example. Whatever you do is what they’re going to feed off of, so I think that’s my biggest thing right now.”

Foy is coachable. She listens, soaking in anything and everything.

One of her strengths, perhaps her most impressive one, is her unselfishness. Winning matters to her.

Getting the Cougars past the first round of the playoffs is first and foremost on Foy’s to-do list. She’s willing to do whatever it takes.

“Doing stuff without the ball is just as important as doing stuff with the ball,” Foy said. “It opens a lot more for your teammates, and that’s the thing I’ve learned a lot. Expanding my game to move without the ball and make those better I.Q. reads.”

And it’s not just on offense. Brown has emphasized Foy being more consistent off the ball defensively, and she’s taken that to heart as well.

Foy is averaging a steal more per game than her previous career best and is making better reads in passing lanes.

“She’s really started to get the effort it takes, not just on the ball but off it as well,” Brown said.

All of this—moving without the ball, making the right reads and being better defensively off the ball—is stuff Foy is making a conscientious effort to improve upon before she gets to Kansas State. A point guard most of her life, she figures she’ll play shooting guard or the wing at the next level.

Now that she’s committed to play in college, Foy said every game as a Cougar matters.

“It helps me get prepared for college, definitely,” she said. “Treating every high school game like a college game. That’s what I try to think about. As a leader, I have to put my team in the best position possible. It’s the same thing I’m going to have to be when I get to college.”

Foy already holds Cinco Ranch’s single-game scoring record, breaking a 20-year-old mark.

She had 42 points against Fort Bend Travis on Nov. 12, besting the program’s previous best of 36 points, and is 148 points shy of breaking Stefanie Gilbreath’s all-time career scoring mark of 2,196 points.

“Just taking it one game at a time,” Foy said, “doing what I need to do.”