Senior Jacey Jaggers is already 16th on Caldwell's all-time scoring list.
When Caldwell County’s girls look back on the 2019-20 basketball season, you can forgive the Lady Tigers if they wonder, “What if?”
What if injuries hadn’t taken a toll over the last half of the season?
Still, the Lady Tigers were able to persevere and fashion a winning record at 16-15. Caldwell still reached the 7th District championship game and earned a trip to the 2nd Region tournament under first-year head coach Chuck Mitchell. The Lady Tigers fell to Madisonville-North Hopkins in the district title tilt before falling to Trigg County 54-50 at the regional tourney.
But the Lady Tigers must have felt at times that they were battling with one hand tied behind their backs after losing senior point guard Jada Boyd with a knee injury during the regional All A Classic in January.
Meanwhile, one of the team’s major offensive threats, junior Jacey Jaggers, missed time with a knee injury. She came back to finish the season despite still being hampered by the injury. Jaggers scored 12.2 points a game for the season.
Caldwell’s bench was also hurt by different ailments the final month of the regular season.
However, the Lady Tigers managed to maintain some consistency through all of that. The team only had one losing streak as long as three games. The squad’s longest winning streak was also three games — twice.
Senior Bella McConnell carried a big part of the offensive load this season, leading the team in both points and rebounds at 12.7 and 6.9, respectively.
Junior Majah Hollowell came on strong down the stretch, taking over the point guard duties from Boyd and averaging 8.9 points a game.
Junior Karsyn Parker grabbed 6.3 rebounds a contest and will also return next season.
Jaggers, Hollowell and Parker will form the axis of Mitchell’s squad next season with the gradution of Boyd, McConnell and Lucy Goffinet.
Jaggers and McConnell were selected to the all-region team this season while Parker made the regional all-tournament squad.
The Lady Tigers need to improve on their shooting next season after making just 37.5 percent of their field goal attempts and shooting only 56.1 percent from the free throw stripe.
Caldwell also managed a winning season despite being outscored by an average of 53.6 to 50.0 points a game.
However, the cupboard is not bare at Caldwell moving forward.
Juniors Morgan McDaniels and Tamia Walker should step into bigger roles next season along with sophomore Parris Gray.
Keep an eye on freshmen A.J. Hollowell and Presley McKinney along with seventh grader Katy Smiley.
If Caldwell can stay healthy, the Lady Tigers could mount a challenge to Madisonville-North Hopkins in the 7th District and have a chance to get past the first round of the 2nd Region tourney next season.
