Conner girls basketball coach Michelle Gambrel said this season would be different.
Three-time defending Ninth Region champion Cooper and regional runner-up Ryle have met for the last three district and regional championships, and the Jaguars have won the last eight games since 2022.
Graduation losses hit Cooper, Ryle and Conner hard – The Jaguars and Raiders both lost six seniors, and the Cougars lost five. Boone County welcomes former Newport coach Marcus Harris, and Conner seeks to rebound from last year’s 13-16 season, its first sub-.500 record since 2015.
“It’s going to be a whole different 33rd District,’ Gambrel said. “It’ll be fun.”
This is day two of six of our district-by-district basketball previews for the 32nd-37th District for the upcoming season, slated to begin on Dec. 2.
Boys basketball previews
Girls basketball previews
Cooper (31-5 in 2023-24)
One word could describe this year’s Jaguars – sophomores; there are seven on the roster.
“Obviously the names and the faces change a little bit,” coach Justin Holthaus said. “But kind of who we are, our identity and things, not gonna change. I think that’s the big thing that we talked about this year. I don’t think my message has changed.”
Look for sophomore Haylee Noel (the tallest on the roster at 5-foot-10) to guide the offense; she averaged 7.8 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds a game.
“She started last year for us, but then we moved her to the point guard mid-December last year,” Holthaus said. “She can score anywhere on the court.”
Junior guard and Boone County transfer Lyric Hooper could bring some offense – she averaged a team-high 13 points a game plus 7.7 rebounds a game for the Rebels last year.
Holthaus said junior Addyson Brissey (5-6) is one of the best on-ball defenders around. “She’s everywhere,” he said.
Alivia Scott, a 5-7 sophomore, and senior Zene Thompson (5-9) comprise the front line. Sophomore Brinkli Rankin is the first guard off the bench, and 5-10 sophomore Simone Smith is the first post player in the rotation.
Ryle (21-12 in 2023-24)
Raiders coach Katie Haitz can relate to Holthaus’ predicament – her top two scorers, Quinn Eubank and Sarah Baker, are at Belmont and Youngstown State, respectively. Losing six seniors precipitated the biggest rebuild since the 2016-17 campaign, when she had to replace seven.
“We just break things down more, what the expectations are,” Haitz said. “The other part is that every year, but especially when you lose that many seniors, you have to re-evaluate what works best for the team you have at the moment.”
The good news: one starter, junior guard Jaelyn Jones (11.6 points a game), returns.
Ryle has some significant – and youthful – size. Jayden McClain, a 6-6 eighth-grader, averaged 1.7 points a game, and, has received several NCAA Division 1 offers, including Kentucky, Ohio State and Florida State.
“She moves well, she’s able to do a lot of things as well outside,” Haitz said.
Jones and eighth-grader Laynee Hampton will share point guard duties. Junior Ava Warner and senior Alexis Elliott are the projected starting forwards, and senior Saylor Fong and junior Piper Aschermann should share time at shooting guard.
Conner (13-16 in 2023-24)
Gambrel begins her sixth season in Hebron. She’ll have a youthful squad.
“I’m going to start an eight-grader,” Gambrel said. “I think I realized (Tuesday) in my top nine, five of them are freshmen or below – eighth-graders or freshmen.”
Conner’s challenge on offense: staying with various sets longer. Before, things would stop because former Cougar Anna Hamilton, now a freshman starter at Northern Kentucky University, would create her own shots.
The Cougars bring back junior forward Izelee Kerns, who averaged 9.3 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. Her college future is set – she’ll play soccer at Western Michigan University.
“She can play in the post, she’s very strong, but she’s a great wing player, too,” Gambrel said. “She can take you off the dribble.”
Senior Alexis Craddock (5.0 points a game last year) is the projected point guard. Freshman Kayci Covelle and junior Bella Smith will share time at shooting guard, eighth-grader Rhys Everett joins Kerns on the front line, and senior Avery Burcham rounds out the starting five.
Boone County (7-20 in 2023-24)
Marcus Harris replaces Todd Humphrey, who became the Rebels’ boys coach.
“I just felt like it was an opportunity to be in a new facility, new gym and being at a new school and build onto a tradition that was already established,” Harris said.
Boone County’s program has mightily struggled. Since Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Famer Nell Fookes completed a 30-year career in 2015, the Rebels are 82-171 (.479) with just one winning season (14-10 in 2020-21).
Harris didn’t arrive in Florence until just before the two-week KHSAA “dead period” from June 25-July 9, when coaches cannot contact athletes or use school resources. After AAU tournaments ended, Harris finally had a chance to do “summer stuff” and “fall preseason work.”
“I just did a lot of open gym; we worked a lot of skill development,” Harris said. “And then in the fall, we did some conditioning along with skill development in the gym.”
Harris usually likes uptempo offense and defense, but he’s forgoing that for a much slower pace.
Whatever schemes he tries, the Rebels will have to find scoring in a hurry – Hooper, Mya Bennett and Joslyn LaBordeaux-Humphrey are gone. Together, they scored 882 of the team’s 1,078 points.
Senior center Briajia Land (6-2) averaged 2.9 points and 5.3 rebounds last year. Junior Alana Glasheen (5-8), sophomore Aaliyah Sharp (5-7) are the guards, and juniors Eiriyana Collins and Leanna Teegarden (5-9) join Land on the front line.
Harris said Sharp, Collins and Glasheen will share time at point guard. Sophomore Krystal De Leon is the first guard off the bench, and senior Ella King is the first post player.
“Our ultimate goal (is), we want to go .500 on the season, and we want to protect home court,” Harris said. “For us, protecting home court means winning more than we lose on our home court.”