When people debate the greatest girls basketball players to come out of Western Pennsylvania, there is one name I don’t think gets mentioned nearly enough: Ashley Battle.

And I think I know why.

Battle was from Pittsburgh, but she didn’t play her high school basketball in the WPIAL or City League. She left Pittsburgh to attend The Linsly School, a private boarding school in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Because of that, a lot of Pittsburgh basketball fans never got to see just how good she really was.

I did.

And I can say this without hesitation: Ashley Battle is the best high school girls basketball player I ever saw with my own eyes. That’s saying something when you consider the amount of girls basketball talent that has come through Western Pennsylvania.

But you also have to understand the era.

This wasn’t today’s world where somebody can play 60 or 100 miles away and you can pull up their highlights on Instagram, YouTube or TikTok that same night. There weren’t mixtapes constantly circulating through social media. There weren’t clips from every AAU tournament sitting on your phone.

Back then, if you wanted to really know how good somebody was, you usually had to physically go see them play. And because Battle was playing across the state line in West Virginia, Pittsburgh didn’t get to watch her every week.

 

She Wasn’t Just a Defender

Most people who remember Battle from University of Connecticut remember the defense.

There’s a good reason for that.

Battle became the 2002-03 Big East Defensive Player of the Year at UConn. She led the Huskies in steals that season and developed a reputation as the type of player who could be assigned to an opponent’s best offensive threat.

But if that’s the only version of Ashley Battle you remember, you missed something.

High school Ashley Battle could get buckets. At Linsly, she wasn’t simply a defensive specialist or role player. She was a dominant all-around basketball player. She finished her high school career with 1,532 points, 823 rebounds, 385 assists and 371 steals, setting school records in all four categories. She was a WBCA All-American, a Parade All-American, West Virginia Player of the Year, a four-time Ohio Valley Class A Player of the Year and a three-time first-team all-state selection. Her Linsly team went undefeated during her junior season.

Those aren’t the numbers of somebody who was just out there locking people up.

She was a complete basketball player.

 

Think About What Going to UConn Meant Then

Sometimes we look at a player’s college career without putting the era into context. Battle arrived at UConn in 2000.

Think about the level of player you had to be to get recruited by UConn during that period.

This was becoming the premier program in women’s college basketball. Battle had choices among some of the biggest programs in the country before ultimately choosing Connecticut.

Then look at the talent she was surrounded by.

Diana Taurasi. Swin Cash. Sue Bird. Asjha Jones. Later Barbara Turner and Ann Strother.

Battle wasn’t going somewhere that needed her to take 20 shots every night. She went into a program loaded with future professional players and stars and found a way to impact winning.

That’s what elite players do.

She adapted. The girl who could dominate offensively in high school became one of the country’s premier defenders in college.

And she won.

Battle was part of three consecutive UConn national championship teams from 2002 through 2004.

You don’t accidentally become an important player on teams like that.

 

What If She Had Stayed in Pittsburgh?

I’ve always wondered how differently Ashley Battle would be discussed locally if she had played four years at a Pittsburgh-area high school.

Imagine those numbers being produced in the WPIAL or City League. Imagine Pittsburgh newspapers covering her games every week. Imagine her name appearing in local rankings, postseason teams and all the conversations that follow Western Pennsylvania basketball players for decades. Her name would probably come up immediately whenever people started discussing the greatest girls players this area has produced.

Instead, she played in Wheeling.

That might only be about an hour from Pittsburgh, but in the basketball media world of the late 1990s, it might as well have been much farther.

She wasn’t part of the regular Pittsburgh high school basketball news cycle. And without social media, there wasn’t another system to make up for that lack of exposure.

That’s why younger generations—and even some people who followed basketball during that era—might look at Battle’s UConn career and think of her primarily as a defensive stopper.

Those of us who actually saw her before UConn know there was much more to her game.

 

Pittsburgh Basketball History Should Claim Ashley Battle

Battle eventually reached another level very few players ever reach. She was selected in the 2005 WNBA Draft and went on to play professionally in the league.

But even that doesn’t completely tell the story.

For me, this is about remembering what she was before everybody knew her as the defender from UConn.

She was a Pittsburgh kid who became one of the best high school basketball players in the region, even if most of her high school games weren’t actually played in Pennsylvania.

She could score. She could rebound. She could handle the ball. She could defend. She could impact a game without needing the basketball. And she was good enough to leave Pittsburgh, dominate at Linsly, become an All-American, walk into one of the greatest college basketball programs in America and find her role on three national championship teams.

I saw Ashley Battle play in high school. More than 25 years later, I’ve seen plenty of talented girls come through Western Pennsylvania.

She’s still the best high school girls basketball player I’ve ever seen with my own eyes.

If Ashley Battle had spent those four years playing at a Pittsburgh-area school, I don’t think her name would ever be left out when we talk about the greatest girls basketball players Western Pennsylvania has produced.

She shouldn’t be left out now.