Kie’Aundria Acree among nation’s elite for Class of 2027

ALBANY — Kie’Aundria “KJ” Acree has been a force on the court in Albany since eighth grade, but now the rest of the country is taking notice.

The rising junior at Monroe High School was ranked No. 16 in the nation in ESPN’s latest HoopGurlz rankings for the Class of 2027 — the top-rated girls basketball player in Georgia and one of the highest-ranked players ever from south Georgia.

“I was happy to see that my ranking went up,” Acree said before Monday’s summer workout at Monroe. “I dropped to 21 last year, so getting back into the top 20 was important to me.”

See the complete rankings here.

Acree has more than 30 Division I scholarship offers already, and on Monday, legendary programs continued to take notice. Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey personally called to extend an offer, joining a list that already includes South Carolina, the first school to offer Acree before she had even played a high school game. Her mother and head coach, Jenniver Acree, said offers from Stanford and Duke are also expected soon.

But KJ isn’t just chasing rankings. She’s chasing history.

“I want to take this team to a state championship,” she said. “I think it would be the first for Monroe girls and maybe even for Albany — to have a girls team win a state title. I want to get another championship for my mom, and I want her to be able to say I was the best player she ever coached.”

The younger Acree is coming off a jaw-dropping sophomore season in which she averaged 31 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals and nearly four blocks per game. She was named the Albany Herald Girls Basketball Player of the Year and continues to turn heads on the summer circuit.

Over the weekend, the Monroe team traveled near Atlanta to compete against some of the state’s top competition, and the gym was packed with college coaches.

“We had about 80 Division I coaches there,” said Coach Acree. “It was kind of wild. I had coaches pulling me this way and that, just to talk about KJ.”

While her defense has always stood out, Acree said her AAU coaches are pushing her to be even more assertive on offense.

“They’ve told me to be more aggressive,” she said. “They said my defense is good, but I should look to score more.”

One milestone that’s not yet checked off her list — but is absolutely within reach — is becoming a McDonald’s All-American.

“We haven’t had a McDonald’s All-American from Albany since Dontonio Wingfield from Westover,” said Coach Acree. “And I don’t think we’ve ever had a female McDonald’s All-American. That would be a big deal — not just for KJ, but for all of us in Albany and all of south Georgia.”

Coach Acree said national evaluators and All-American selectors were in the gym over the weekend.

“I tell my team all the time, if they’re coming to see KJ, they’re going to see everyone else too. This kind of attention doesn’t happen south of Atlanta very often, so we’re going to make the most of it.”

Coach Acree has her own goals and intends to reach those goals even after her daughter graduates.

“I want to get over 500 wins and have the most wins at Monroe High School,” the coach said. “I think I am around 440 now, so it’s not likely that we can do that while KJ is still here. We would need two 30-plus winning seasons for that to happen. I’m expecting good seasons, but I don’t know if we will get to 30-plus wins.”

Acree won her state at Randolph-Clay before moving over to Monroe High School.