Mercer Girl’s Basketball Open Season With One Goal

The Mercer County Lady Titans basketball team was one win short of making it to the State Tournament in 2013-14, after a loss to the Danville Lady Admirals in the 12th Region Championship.

This season they are coming back with a vengeance and looking to take home the 12th Region crown, which has eluded them since the 2002-03 season.

The team has a loaded freshman class that many people around the state are talking about, but Lady Titan Head Coach Chris Souder knows the team will have to rely on the leadership of their upperclassmen if they want to get to the promised land.

The following are questions and answers with Souder on the upcoming season:

Q: Who do you expect to be some of the key returners from last year’s regional runner-up team?

A: “With the exception of Raegan (Freeman) we have got our entire team back.”

Q: Who are the newcomers to keep an eye on this season?

A: “We have two girls that transferred in from Henry Clay, Haleigh Conley and Savannah Fallis. They’re both sophomores and hopefully once they figure out how things go here they can  contribute a little bit. Both have some good things they can do but it just takes a while to learn our system but once they learn it hopefully they can help out some.

“We also have Catheryne Claunch back after sitting out last season. To be honest with you, it hurt us when Catheryne didn’t play. It took us a while to adjust to that. Her sophomore year, she was our leading scorer while averaging 15 points per game.”

Q: What will be the strengths of this years team?

A: “Definitely depth. We played 12 girls last year and weren’t afraid to play any of the 12. We even platooned, so there is not much of a drop off. I really like what Calipari says, they’re really not subs, they’re replacements. The way we play we will try to wear teams down. We don’t have much size but we have really strong guard play. Any kid I put into the game is a threat to shoot the three.”