Derrin Boyd
All five members of the first team of Caldwell County’s All-Decade basketball list went on to play college ball — just not necessarily basketball.
The first team of the top Tigers from the last 10 seasons features Derrin Boyd, Eli Pepper, Josh Wilkerson, Elijah Sindelar and Dee Cain.
Boyd was a redshirt freshman this past year at Georgetown College, which won the NAIA national championship in 2019.
Boyd averaged 24 points a game as a senior while helping Caldwell go 19-11 and reach the regional semifinals.
Boyd finished his career fourth on the Tigers’ all-time scoring list with 1,911 points.
The 6-foot-9 Pepper is seventh on that same list with 1,307 points. He is also second on the Tigers’ career rebounding list with 1,172 (just 21 behind Michael Gray).
Boyd and Pepper own the only three triple-doubles in Tiger basketball history. Pepper turned the trick twice.
Pepper, meanwhile, would go on to have a stellar college career as a four-year starter at Lipscomb University in Nashville.
Pepper not only scored 925 points with the Bisons, but set the school’s NCAA-era record for rebounds with 1,016. That also put him third on the ASUN Conference’s career rebounding list.
In four years with the Bisons, Pepper was a part of 84 wins, including three 20-win seasons and a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2018. Lipscomb was national runner-up in the NIT in 2019.
Pepper played professional basketball briefly in the British Basketball League before returning home and joining the coaching staff at Caldwell this past season.
Wilkerson, now at Kentucky State University, is 21st on Caldwell’s career scoring list with 843 points.
Wilkerson led the Tigers with 17.5 points a game as a senior in 2016-17, when Caldwell finished 16-14.
Most will remember Sindelar as Kentucky’s Mr. Football in 2014 who broke the state’s all-time record for touchdown passes.
However, Sindelar is also a member of Caldwell’s 1,000-points club in basketball. He is 17th all-time with 1,089 points. That total would have been much, much higher if he had played basketball all four years in high school.
Sindelar went on to have his moments as quarterback at Purdue University, but was plagued by injuries during his time with the Boilermakers.
Cain is 20th on Caldwell’s career scoring list with 934 points. Like Sindelar, Cain would be much higher but elected not to play his senior season.
And, like Sindelar, Cain would go on to play college football but has battled injuries in his time at Western Kentucky University. Cain will be a senior this fall in Bowling Green.
Caldwell’s second team from the past decade features Jameer Riley, Tez Sivils, Russel Brandon, John Davis and Cayden Fraliex.
Riley is another player who decided to skip his senior season on the hardwood, but still managed to place 44th on Caldwell’s career list with 644 points.
Sivils was 46th with 628 points but missed an entire season with a football injury.
Brandon scored 607 career points, good enough for 51st at Caldwell. As a senior in 2016-17, he averaged 11.3 points a game and a team-high 9.2 rebounds.
John Davis finished his career 33rd on Caldwell’s all-time scoring list with 724 points. He was a senior with Boyd in 2018-19. Davis was a freshman this year on the baseball team at Midway University.
Fraliex made a run at 1,000 career points this season before finishing with 945. That puts him 19th on the Tigers’ all-time list.
