'We are coming': Lady Lex showing growth, prove future is bright in girls basketball
LEXINGTON — First-year Lexington girls basketball coach Gabby Stover sat back as time ticked away from her team's 39-29 loss to Mansfield Senior on Saturday night.
She hates losing almost as much as she loves winning. And another thing she hates is moral victories. But she couldn't help but to reflect on just how much her team has grown over the course of the 2023-24 season. And even though her team suffered its ninth loss of the season, she didn't take this one as badly as she thought she would have.
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The 10-point loss was a far cry from the 70-33 loss Lady Lex took to Mansfield Senior in their first meeting back on Dec. 14, just more than a month ago. So, yeah, maybe it was a loss, but it was definitely a moral victory and one about which Lady Lex should hold their head high.
Lexington (7-9, 6-4) has just one senior who has recorded varsity playing time this year in Cora Palmer. Palmer is averaging 8.36 points per game and has 20 assists on the season, so she is playing a major role for Lady Lex, but a majority of the lineup is peppered with underclassmen.
Junior Makaree Chapman is the leading scorer at 13.4 per night while sophomore Ava Brown is averaging 10.4 points and 10.7 rebounds, nearly recording a double-double every single game this season. Sophomore Tatum Stover is adding 4.2 points and 8.6 rebounds, and fellow sophomore Bella Temple chips in with 4.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Chapman also has 43 assists and 68 steals for the season in her first year at Lexington after moving in from Ashland.
And while they held the high-scoring Mansfield Senior offense to its second-lowest point total of the season on Saturday, Lady Lex was basically looking into the mirror of the future against the veteran-heavy Tygers. Soon, that will be Lady Lex, full of veteran leadership and experience across the board, and when that time comes, look out.
Saturday was the sixth game this season Lady Lex has lost by 10 points or less. Last year, Lexington lost 11 games by single digits and one more by 10 points to finish 5-18 on the season. This year's team has already eclipsed last year's win total but is still finding hard luck in those close games.
“That next step is putting together four quarters,” Gabby Stover said. “If you look at our stats from game to game, we always have that one quarter where we just die. It isn’t energy wise, but we just don’t score or we turn it over too much. Once we limit that and take advantage of every possession, we should be turn it around in the second half of conference play.”
On Saturday, it was the third quarter as Lex managed just one point offensively but kept things close, allowing just six points in the frame. They even cut it to three points in the fourth quarter against the 16-1, 10-0 Tygers. They were right there.
Lady Lex flashes its potential on Saturday, and when it finally reaches it, it could be in store for something very special.
“There is so much potential in this group, and I don’t think people really realize it,” Stover said. “I don’t think my girls even realize it. Until we get into games and it is close and we prove to ourselves that we can hang with really good teams, that is when they will realize it."
Fresh off of a volleyball season that took them to the Division II district championship match, Lady Lex has the chance to get some momentum rolling in basketball, too. They have six games left, and all are golden opportunities. They already have more wins than they had last season and the most wins since winning the Ohio Cardinal Conference title in 2019-20 when Stover was the Player of the Year.
Stover sees the future of the current Lady Lex to be just as bright as when she played.
“There is an unbelievable amount of athleticism and talent in this group,” Stover said. “They are just young and have to put it all together. I am a new coach, so they are still getting used to me, and there are times they are surprised I want them to do something a certain way. We are learning together, and we will be a team to watch out for. We are coming.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Lexington Lady Lex girls basketball showing plenty of growth in 2023-24
