Sarah Ashlee Barker scored a school-record 45 points in her final game for Alabama – a 111-108 double-overtime loss to Maryland on March 24 in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

 On Friday night, Barker could make her WNBA debut when the Los Angeles Sparks tip off their 2025 regular-season against the Golden State Valkyries.

In between the two games, the Sparks chose the guard ninth in the WNBA Draft on April 14.

“The advice that I’ve gotten is just be where your feet are,” Barker said at Los Angeles’ media day on Wednesday, “so wherever you are that day, that time, then that’s where you need to be, and that’s been the biggest kind of just advice for me that’s helped me along the way because there’s been a lot of stuff that’s happened in those two months with the draft, with the season ending, with banquets, all that kind of stuff, and then, obviously, coming here and moving here really quick.

“It’s just a really quick process, but just be where your feet are and be exactly who you are just in every single way and work hard.”

Barker won Alabama’s Miss Basketball Award for the 2019-20 season, her final campaign for Spain Park High School in Hoover. Barker paced the Jaguars to the AHSAA Class 7A girls’ basketball championship that season. Spain Park also had won the 2018 title. Barker averaged 23.2 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game during her prep career.

Barker spent two seasons with Georgia before playing the past three with the Crimson Tide. During the 2024-25 campaign, Barker averaged 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.0 steals in 28 games.

“Obviously, it’s an adjustment for sure, just like it was my freshman year in college,” Barker said of joining the WNBA. “Like, the camp has been amazing. I have great teammates. They’re always in my ear. They’ll help me with anything. Any question I have, they’re right there. …

“Definitely the adjustment with the speed of the game and all that stuff, but being here and being with a great group of girls and great, great coaches, it’s been a really easy adjustment, for sure, from that aspect.”

The draft brought Barker to Los Angeles, where her basketball hero spent his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Growing up, I loved Kobe Bryant,” Barker said. “Just the mamba mentality. Obviously, being in L.A., it means a lot. And so growing up, I always wanted to have that mamba mentality. Always wanted to play hard offensively and defensively because I think anytime you watched him play, he was giving his all – in shootaround, in workouts, in games, every single day. You could see that in whatever videos came out about him, he was sweating, he was giving it his all.

“And so for me, that’s just something that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always looked up to his game. I never really tried to model my game after him. It was more just like his mentality of the game.”

The Sparks had the WNBA’s worst record during the 2024 season at 8-32, and they’re opening the 2025 season against a team that had no record in 2024. When Los Angeles and Golden State square off at 9 p.m. CDT Friday at Chase Center in San Francisco, the Valkyries will be playing their first game as a WNBA expansion team.

The teams played their preseason game against each other on May 6, with the Sparks posting an 83-82 victory. Barker had five points, three rebounds and three assists in 13 minutes of court time.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.