Led by the explosive guard tandem of junior A’Lyrica Hughes and freshman Unique Carter-Swanagan along with a slew of experience throughout the roster thanks to being healthy and gaining valuable transfers, Owensboro has completely flipped the girls basketball program’s success within a year—looking to continue a historic season against Breckinridge County in the 3rd Region Tournament on Friday.
The Lady Devils have done a complete 360 within a year, having finished the 2021-22 campaign sitting at 13-16 and finishing with a 1-6 district record. At the time Owensboro didn’t have any seniors on the roster and found themselves playing eighth grade guards Unique Carter-Swanagan and Lulu Greer in the starting lineup throughout the year.
But Head Coach Jansen Locher said the program’s steps forward all started two weeks after the 2021-22 campaign ended, as they got back in the gym to get shops up. Then the summer came around and with some newcomers to the roster, things began clicking.
This was something that initially shocked senior Apollo transfer K’Asia Palmer, who came into the program with some preconceived notions about Owensboro’s culture.
“During the summer it was really fun,” Palmer said. “Coming in I’m not gonna lie, I kind of had the same thoughts as everybody else outside about the program. Like ‘oh it’s ok if we come in here and we don’t win.’ But as I was practicing with the girls and stuff I was like ‘this team can really compete.’”
Gaining more and more confidence after a few games together, the Lady Devils began an upward trend that led them to the No. 1 seed in the 9th district and their current record of 20-10 overall. And while the sudden flip of success has shocked plenty in the area, Locher and company knew this was coming.
“It’s been pretty surreal, but as awesome as it is it’s not a surprise to us,” Locher said. “We know we surprised a lot of people, but we knew what we were capable of and it was just kind of putting it all together… We had a great summer and the girls just kind of came together. We had some new girls that transferred in that the team really took in well, and they just all started gelling together well.”
At the core of the team’s success is junior guard A’Lyrica Hughes—Owensboro’s diamond in the rough during past seasons struggles—serving as the team’s leading scorer since she joined the program as an eighth grader herself in 2019. Hughes’ game proceeded to improve year after year, most recently winning 9th District player of the year as a sophomore and being named to the All-District team again following the regular season this year.
However, in those first three seasons the guard’s success didn’t necessarily lead to wins, as the team lacked depth and the experience they needed to compete amongst the best in the area. Fast forward a year later to the present though and those are the exact things that helped them earn the No. 1 seed in the 9th District, later competing in the district championship for the first time in over a decade and grabbing a first round 3rd Region Tournament win for the first time in 15 years by defeating Muhlenberg County on Tuesday.
Owensboro’s roster now totes five seniors—including key returnees in Chandler Worth and Lindsey Gibson—joining Daviess County transfer CJ Paige, Palmer and Melia Moorman who returned to the team after battling injuries in recent years. The transfers and Moorman have been instrumental in rebuilding the program in little over a year, joining the youth to provide the depth the Lady Devils need.
“They’re all leaders,” Locher said. “They all have leadership qualities about them and then you throw in A’Lyrica who’s only a junior, but she has also has four years of experience coming in. They knew what we wanted to do, we just didn’t always have the horses to be able to do it.”
The newfound depth and experience has allowed Owensboro to use fullcourt pressure to create chaos against teams, helping them play the style they want to and dictate the tempo of the game more often than not. Carter-Swanagan—despite missing time this year due to a shoulder injury—has arguably been the most integral of the team’s youth, as she has quickly formed a dynamic backcourt duo with Hughes that spearheads that fullcourt pressure.
“She’s got a motor unlike any other,” Locher said. “She just can go, go, go… She’s so strong and she can turn players any way that she wants them to go. She kind of dictates where they go from that point. Offensively she has so many things to her game. She can shoot the ball, she can get into the paint and hit a floater and she can hit free throws… She’s an all-around player.”
Hughes and Carter-Swanagan have been teammates for years now and Unique has a huge amount of respect for the junior guard’s game, knowing that they can help the Lady Devils get the job done on any given night.
“A’Lyrica’s a great guard,” Carter-Swanagan said. “I never have to worry about too much. She’s going to go and do her thing and then when she’s off I’m going to pick up for her.”
Hughes shared the same sentiment in return, knowing that she can count on Carter-Swanagan with a knack for the game beyond her years—never ceasing to be fazed in big moments.
“You’d expect her to be older,” Hughes said. “She’s still learning and growing more and I love to play with her. I’ve been playing with her for a couple of years. It’s nice. She’s my dog for real.”
The pair are also leading the Lady Devils in scoring this season, as Hughes puts up 14.3 ppg and 6.9 rpg while Carter-Swanagan averages 8.5 ppg. Hughes’ numbers are down from just a year ago, but she’ll be the first to tell you she’ll trade those numbers in for wins any day and is happy to have help from her teammates.
“It feels good,” Hughes said. “When I have an off night I get in my head and stuff, but I have teammates to come and pick me up and help me. It’s a lot better. I don’t have to worry about things like ‘oh I have to do this.’ I don’t ever care about points. I want to come out here and play with my team and make us better.”
That team-first mentality is something that Locher said is a cornerstone of the Lady Devils culture, as Hughes ability to get everyone involved and lead her team is vital to their success.
“She knows that the success of the team is going to come from everybody,” Locher said. “It’s just lifted a little weight off of her shoulders not having to do everything every single game like she felt like she had to in the past. She’s done a great job of feeding the ball to other players and telling them ‘I believe in you to hit this shot, I believe in you to make the right play, I believe in you to catch the ball,’ and things like that. She’s the first one clapping in practice trying to get people motivated. She’s kind of my extended arm on the court.”
Along with the unspoken leadership that Hughes and Carter-Swanagan display with their performance on the court, they are often joined by another upperclassmen in Paige. Coming from Daviess County High School having competed in the same district for years as well, the trio has found a way to balance learning and teaching one another in order to be at their best.
“In practice I learn from them and they learn from me,” Paige said. “Just taking each other as good teammates should and push each other. They push me and I push them.”
Palmer has also tried to help bring her experience to help the team night in and night out, trying to make sure that the Lady Devils are able to take the highs with the lows to come away with wins.
“Since I’ve been in this atmosphere a lot, I just try to remind the girls that it’s ok,” Palmer said. “Stay calm. [Sometimes] you’re on a bigger platform, but you’re playing the same game no matter what. I feel like I try to take on a leadership role and try to keep everyone together.”
With so many natural leaders on the team Owensboro has become a tight-knit group, as Carter-Swanagan said the team spends plenty of time off the court together as well and it shows in games.
Hughes shared a similar notion, saying that being able to just enjoy playing with one another and know that each person trusts the other wholly has made competing for all 32 minutes every game a constant for the Lady Devils.
“Everybody on this team has talent and we all just put it together and play as a team,” Hughes said. “We have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day we’re still playing together, having fun and just going out there and trying to win and get better.”
This has only made this season that much more memorable for Hughes, as she has thoroughly enjoyed getting to battle in the postseason alongside her teammates. And if she has it her way, they’re not going to let up and keep moving on in the 3rd Region Tournament.
“It means a lot to me,” Hughes said. “It’s always been there, but this year I just feel like it’s our year. We have a chance and we’re only guaranteed games one at a time, but we just gotta keep playing hard, play together and just go out there and do our thing.”
That postseason push starts with their semifinals matchup against Breckinridge County at 7:45 p.m. on Friday, a team that they lost to 53-39 on Feb. 6 at home during the regular season. The Lady Devils are hopeful to keep their postseason going for the foreseeable future, but are focused on cherishing every moment of this journey and taking things one step at a time—starting with Friday’s game.
“We take it one game, one day, one practice at a time,” Locher said. “I told them after the district tournament, ‘I’m thankful to have another practice with you guys. I’m thankful to have another game with you guys.’ Same thing when we won the other night. So [we want] to just enjoy our time together. We know it’s not going to last forever… We’d love to give ourselves the opportunity to play at Rupp, but we’re just taking it a game at a time. Right now our focus is Breck and what we have to do to win against Breck.”
Palmer and company are confident in their chances to come away victorious and advance to the 3rd Region Championship, saying that the program is hungry to keep making history this season from top to bottom.
“Breck’s been there before,” Palmer said. “It’s been awhile since this program has been there and I feel like a lot of the girls on our team and in our program really want this… We’re dialing in and we’ve realized ‘oh we’re here. We deserve to be here.’”
