Following a solid first season under new Head Coach Stephen Haile, the Lady Panthers are looking to build on that success with a balanced group in the 2022-23 campaign.
Daviess County finished 18-12 overall last season, with its season being cut short in the first round of the 9th District tournament. They also return nearly all of last season’s roster, as Katie Mewes—who was their third leading scorer at nine points per game and point guard—graduated and CJ Paige transferred to Owensboro.
The Lady Panthers will now look to Adylan Ayer to take over as the sole point guard on the team for her senior season, after leading the team in scoring (12.2 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg) in her junior year. Daviess County also returns three other starters from a year ago, including senior Madison Spurrier, sophomore Zoey Beehn—who averaged 7.0 ppg and was the team’s second leading rebounder at 4.3 rpg—as well as sophomore Lily Hoagland who was the team’s second-leading scorer with 10 ppg.
Spurrier has improved her outside shooting during the offseason according to Haile, who also said that Beehn will give them a solid inside-outside threat and shot blocker. Having battled injuries in the past year Haile said that as long as Hoagland is healthy, she will be a crucial part of the team’s offensive success.
Daviess County will also return senior Maggie Hancock, who Haile said had a good summer in a rebounding and defensive role as well as sophomore Emme Roberts—someone who logged a number of minutes last year that Haile expects to take the next step.
Coming into this season Haile said that Daviess County wants to improve its offensive efficiency, while also turning up their defensive pressure game in and game out.
“I would like to improve our shot selection and shoot a higher percentage from the field, especially from three-point range,” Haile said. “I would like to improve our pressure defense and turn the opposition over more often for easy points as well.”
The Lady Panthers will have some newcomers to help out in those efforts as well, with freshman guard Briley Henry that Haile said can give them some offensive production as well as the frontcourt duo of freshmen Sophia Cain and Mack Elliott.
Haile and company are hoping to continue to grow this season, with staying healthy, sharing the basketball and playing stingy defense as the recipe for getting wins. While they might face some health issues to start the season, the Lady Panthers are aiming to be a force in the 9th District.
“My expectations are to build upon last season and to be playing our best basketball come tournament time,” Haile said. “Everything has gone according to plan to this point. We have had a few injury issues, but hopefully we will have those ironed out soon.”
