Terrance Wolfolk

WBB SEASON PREVIEW -- Youthful Wildcats Women’s Basketball Ready for Next Building Step

11/8/2018 4:53:00 PM

By: Chris Myers

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2017-18 Season Stats
FORT VALLEY, Ga. – Rebuilding is never an easy task, but the Wildcats are well on their way to returning to long-running success. Fort Valley State women's basketball is ready to take the next building step and accomplish the task with a youthful 2018-19 roster.

Following a tough last campaign, the Wildcats have strong more experienced building blocks, a full roster and an influx of potential-filled newcomers in what has the makings of an exciting season outlook.

"Last year was a tough year for us. We are in a rebuilding phase," said FVSU second-year head coach Le'Coe Willingham. "Right now, we are young and very competitive. We are full of competitive drive and youthful with no seniors, who you will see try to play a fast-pace type of basketball.

As the Wildcat coach alluded, this year's 15 players dotting the roster can say the adjective of senior cannot be found. Despite having no fourth-year players, FVSU returns its top five scorers from last year, including All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Honorable Mention Alicia Franklin (Atlanta, Ga.).

"(Through the tough last season) we found (and have) people, who are battle tested now. We have good leaders on this team and ones who improved as last year went on," added Willingham. "We are trying to build the culture of the program and understanding of my system. This year is all about improvement with bringing more fundamentals and doing the right things to get us closer to taking the next step to being a championship caliber team.

Having so much youth, there is a lot of teaching (being done)," noted the FVSU coach. "These young kids are not afraid (of what has happened in the past) as they are excited about the future. There's potential on this team and it will depend on what I do and what the kids do with it. We are not skipping over the season as we have to take one practice and one game at a time to improve each day and all will fall in place by doing this."

Joining Franklin are three other fellow juniors in Nola Carter (Jacksonville, Fla.), Keaundra Cox (Columbus, Ga.) and Jalin Moye (Miami, Fla.). The third-year class will provide the foundation of the squad to go with four sophomores and seven freshmen.

"We have good leaders (in Alicia, Nola and Keaundra), but it is nice to have a full roster this year as the team has more numbers and we are able to get players like redshirt sophomore Alexia Green and sophomore Amiah Height healthy," noted Willingham. "We have made a bunch of progress, but we have a ways to go. I want to have fun with this group and enjoy competing and rebuilding the brand and culture of FVSU basketball."

The Wildcats aim to get back to their form from the 2008-09 through 2011-12 seasons where they had four-straight 20-plus win seasons and a combined 97-25 record. FVSU looks first for its first winning campaign since it posted a 15-13 mark in 2012-13.

The 2018-19 Wildcat journey starts this weekend. FVSU opens in the Gulf South Conference/SIAC Challenge against host No. 23 nationally Valdosta State Friday night (Nov. 9) at 6 p.m., before it finishes versus No. 5 regionally-ranked West Florida in a noon Saturday afternoon (Nov. 10) contest.

"We are way ahead of where we were last year. I expect this week for us to have a better showing than last year as it will be a good litmus test for us," said the Wildcat head coach.

Expected to lead the Wildcats, Franklin, the team's smallest player, recorded a breakout sophomore season. The 5-3 guard pumped in 16.0 points per night, including 68 treys, while she grabbed 4.3 rebounds, handed out 50 assists and swiped 37 steals.

"Alicia's my "Mighty Mouse" as she is a small kid, but my toughest kid. I hope to get her more rest and help for her (this year) as I played her a lot of minutes (38.8 per game) last year. She can score for us in a variety of ways," said Willingham.

Able to play the two through the four spots, Carter is the hard-working swing player in the FVSU lineup. In her second year, Nola doubled her production in all three areas of points (12.6 ppg), rebounds (8.1 rpg) and assists (61) from her freshman campaign.

"Nola is our all-around player, who has an infectious energy," pointed out Willingham. "She never gives up and is always around the ball and makes good things happen."

The FVSU quarterback, Cox, is set to run the show again. The 5-5 Wildcat took over the point last year and contributed 5.0 points and 2.7 rebounds, while she handed out 29 assists and stole 30 balls. Cox was also second in 3-pointers made of 19.

"Keaundra is a good floor general for us. It was different for her last year transitioning to a new style of basketball and understanding what the coach is looking for her to do, but she came on strong the second part of year. She is very important to the success of the team and will take on more leadership this year and be more of an offensive leader on the floor," explained Willingham.

The final two Wildcats of the top five returning scorers, Height and Kaylan West (Atlanta, Ga.), help on the inside. Battling injury, the 5-11 Height showed consistent numbers for last year's squad with 6.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest. She was also second on the team in field goal percentage at .362 (63 of 174) and third with 14 blocked shots.

"Back from injury, we saw what Amiah can do when she came back last December, but only had her a short time. She is working to get back to form now, and we expect good things from the good leader she is," said the Wildcats coach.

West walked on to the FVSU team before last season and finished as the fourth-best point scorer at 6.5 per night. The sophomore averaged 22.1 minutes where she led the team with a .390 field goal percentage (57 of 146) and pulled down 176 rebounds (5.3 rpg).

Willingham noted, "Kaylan was a surprise last year as she was a walk on to the team, but I am thankful she came. She never gave up and was the most improved player last year. Kaylan stepped up and did the work in the offseason to push herself to be in the best condition for this season and bought into it (what we want to do)."

After a medical redshirt season, Alexia Green (Fort Valley, Ga.) returns to the inside lineup. In her freshman campaign two years ago, Green saw action in 27 games where she produced 4.1 points and 5.1 rebounds. She made almost 38-percent (.376) of her field goal attempts and blocked 14 opponents' shots.

"Very similar to Amiah, Alexia came back off an ACL injury," told Willingham. "She is a great kid, who was improving so much when we lost her, and was a big loss for us in the last year's lineup. Having her back, (it) changes things for us. She is quick, who will help in rebounding, and we are excited to have her back. I hope to have her 100-percent and for her to hit her stride when we get to the SIAC part of our schedule."

The youth of the Wildcats can be seen very evident with the rest of the full roster being a redshirt sophomore and seven true freshmen.

Freshman guard Aireyanna Conners (Madison, Wis.) and 6-0 forward Torri Myers (Buena Vista, Ga.) are expected to make contributions on the court in their first seasons. Conners helped Madison East High to back-to-back Regional Championships the past two years. Myers guided Marion County High to a Georgia High School Association state championship runnerup finish, along with being named All-Region and All-State First Team honors.

"Conners gives a different look and energy and she gets to the basket," said Willingham. "Myers is a great kid and extremely athletic. After she gets a few games (under her belt) and going into January, I hope for her to start to shine and do a lot of different things."

Rounding out the FVSU backcourt, three other freshmen – Nyah Dismukes (Nashville, Tenn.), Jah'ne Brown (Albany, Ga.) and CeAsia Johnson (Buford, Ga.) – look to battle for time.

The Wildcats have both returning junior Moye, who chipped in 1.4 points a game in 26 contests last year, and trio of other inside options – redshirt sophomore India King (Warner Robins, Ga.), who netted 27 points in eight games two years ago, Destiny Craig (Augusta, Ga.) and center Camille Saunders (Conyers, Ga.) – to turn to for inside production.

The Wildcats aim to improve upon their fifth-place finish in the SIAC East Division from a year ago. FVSU tries to make head way against defending SIAC champion Clark Atlanta, Albany State and Benedict in the top ranks of the East and Spring Hill and Central State in the West Division. Along with opening against talented Valdosta State and West Florida this weekend, FVSU makes trips to No. 4 rated Carson-Newman and regionally-ranked Lee University and West Georgia.

"The beauty of the SIAC is anyone can win on any night. Our out of conference schedule should do us very well (in challenging and making us better)," added Willingham.

With all the more-tested group of returners and excited and potential-filled newcomers in the fold, the Fort Valley State women's basketball program is primed to take its next big step back to the high-level of success on the court the program enjoyed less than a decade ago.

-Wildcats-

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WBB SEASON PREVIEW -- Youthful Wildcats Women’s Basketball Ready for Next Building Step