Hodge: Lady Scots basketball continues to move in the right direction despite another 3rd round exit

When a team makes no progress in how far it goes in the playoffs from the year before, it could be looked at as a sign that little to no improvement was made.

While the Scotland women’s basketball team didn’t advance any further in the playoffs this year from last year, the team proved it was better than the 2023 squad that finished 20-9 and 12-0 in Sandhills Athletic Conference play.

How so? All it takes is comparing who the Lady Scots played this season and how well they performed.

Scotland finished 23-5, the program’s most wins in a season since at least 2000, and 11-3 in the SAC. Three of its losses were to Richmond, which made up all of its conference losses, and the other two came against Jack Britt, which went 18-7 this year, and South Central, the team that ended Scotland’s chances of winning a state championship in the third round.

However, the 63-55 loss to South Central, the No. 1 seed in the 3A East, was more impressive than not for the Lady Scots, a No. 9 seed. It’s the second year in a row Scotland was taken down by the top seed in the 3A East, but last year’s loss against No. 1 E.E. Smith ended in an 82-47 result.

Going from a 35-point loss to an eight-point defeat indicates that this team had what it took to win it all.

“We never really gave up on any games that we lost,” Scotland coach Roshien McClain said. “But as far as the overall season, great season. Third round again, 20-plus wins again, 3A conference champs again, and the future is bright with the upcoming middle schoolers that I’ve seen that are really hungry about playing varsity basketball.”

Looking at the Lady Scots’ individual stats, having two big-time scorers in Morgan Thompson (19.0 points this past season) and Alicia McClain (14.7 points) was the driving force of the offense, along with 3-point specialist Madysan Hammonds (7.6 points), who averaged about two 3s a game.

Defensively, Alicia McClain (5.2 steals, 3.7 blocks in 23 games where stats were listed), Thompson (3.8 steals in 23 games), Hammonds (2.2 steals in 23 games), Madison Dixon (1.0 steals in 22 games) and Nyasia McQueen (1.0 steals in 22 games) were the main contributors in helping Scotland allow only 41.1 points per game.

“I think you saw a lot of people get better throughout the season,” Roshien McClain said. “And Kayla Simmons (4.2 points, 6.1 rebounds in 22 games) really stepped up real big this year as far as her growth from last year (1.8 points, 2.7 rebounds last season) to this year, and I still think she can get better for next year. Even though, Alicia and Morgan have been playing great, they got better each year.”

For Roshien McClain’s goal of having his program become state champions, it’ll take an offseason of practice in the gym for his players to take another step forward.

“The offseason and preseason got to be very attentive,” Roshien McClain said. “When I say attentive, I mean, attendance is very important Monday through Saturday, whatever days you can make it. We’ve got to be in the gym. When there’s a dead period, we know we can’t be in there. But when there’s no dead period, we’ve got to be in the gym.”

And with Hammonds and McQueen as the only players graduating, getting Thompson and Alicia McClain, both juniors, back for next season means Scotland will have another real shot of bringing home the 3A title.

“I’m very excited about that,” Roshien McClain said. “You’ve also got Kayla coming back, Asiah (McInnis), Emerie (Snuggs); can’t forget about Emerie. You’ve got Jakiya (Brown) coming back. Ramsey (Hale’s) probably going to give another go next year also. And then, you’ve got the middle schoolers. Whoever that may be. I’m expecting three or four of them to come in, and ready to go. So that’s going to be very key also.”