Duke University will be Payton's place for the next four years.
Yesterday, Unionville's Payton Black, a 6-foot-4 center, announced she would sign with the Blue Devils when the early signing period begins tomorrow.
Black led the Indians to last year's District 1 Class AAA girls' basketball title and was selected to Parade magazine's all-America second team. She picked Duke over Penn State, Virginia and Georgia Tech.
"Duke had the best all-around blend of academics, athletics and social life for me," Black said. "I just felt really comfortable there."
Black said she also was impressed with Gail Goestenkors, Duke's second- year coach. In Goestenkors' first season, Duke improved from last to a tie for fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Goestenkors, a former assistant at Purdue, is known as an excellent recruiter, and she brought in many of the players who led the Boilermakers to last year's Final Four.
Despite her height, Black, who is slender, was recruited as a forward.
"It's not so much the height as the body type," Black said. "I'm not that wide."
Black is an excellent all-round athlete who plays first singles for the tennis team and is a high scorer on Unionville's lacrosse team. She probably has the athletic ability to make the switch to forward. She demonstrated solid ball-handling skills last season, often bringing the ball upcourt, and added some range to her jump shot over the summer.
Black averaged 17 points a game as a junior and led Unionville to a 22-3 record. She has a career total of 1,163 points and is closing in on the school record of 1,567 set by Wendy Waibel in 1984.
