MV Lady Wildcats wrap up season with loss in sectional semifinals

By Dave Pearce

Mount Vernon High School girls’ basketball Coach Rocky Alderman had an idea what he was getting into when he agreed to take on a fledgling basketball program with his first season to be the 2024-25 season.

He was facing a shortage of players on a team that had won very few games the year before. But Alderman has dealt with other controversy in his life and was happy to have the opportunity to rebuild a program that had enjoyed success a few years ago but quite simply, not lately. He knew this would be no easy task but felt like the future of the students and the future of the program were worth it.

He struggled through the first season with a win or two with less than 10 players. But then graduation came and took most of the experience he had. Coming into this, his second season, he knew he had some experience coming back and a few coming in as freshmen but didn’t know just how much to expect from this year’s team, which won eight games and won a sectional first-round game before falling in the sectional semi-final.

“At the start of the year, I would have been ecstatic if you told us we were going to have eight wins by the end of the season,” Alderman said with an infectious smile. “We knew with our incoming freshman class and the offseason work our returners put in that we were going to be a better team than last year, but we weren’t really sure how much better until we started playing games.”

But early in the season, he learned that this team was going to compete night in and night out and all the way through the ends of the games. And while that spoke volumes, he wasn’t sure that that would transfer into in the way of victories.

“We showed early in the year in our scrimmage with Rivet and our first win over Tecumseh a little bit of what we could be when we all got on the same page and I felt we only got better as the year went on,” Alderman said. “Playing the games and watching each individual improve as well as our team chemistry on the court is a part of the fun so I enjoyed this season too much to trade it in for any record.”

Watching young athletes learn how to compete and help them get better is one of the joys of coaching. He was able to see a good portion of it this season. The culmination came when the Lady Wildcats got a win recently in the first round of the Class 3A sectional.

“Winning on Tuesday in the sectional was really special,” he said. “We got to play last year on Friday by luck of the draw so this is three years in a row we have advanced to Friday. We talked early this year about how long it had been since Mount Vernon been able to play on Saturday, and know our goal is to win a few more games and hopefully go a little deeper in the post season each year.”

But to get the win under the circumstances was even more special.

“The win was nice as we were on a 6-game losing streak and didn’t want to finish the season that way,” he explained. “It was also nice to compare our growth seeing how we matched up with Bosse again last week after facing them in December.”

This season had a lot of memorable moments for the young head coach and his team. Key Happenings are as follows:

*The win over Tecumseh early in the season broke a 24-game losing streak.

*The team tied for Second place in the Hamilton county Tournament.

*Stella Hall’s buzzer-beater against Steeleville and 27 points against Goreville led to a spot for her and the team on the all tournament team.

*Taylor Ellison’s double-double in the win over Pike Central (10 points 11 rebounds) was the first under the news coach.

*The Wildcats hosted the first ever Mount Vernon MegaGame between all three elementary school fifth grade teams.

*At the Fairfield Merry Mule Tournament:

-Abby Powell earned a double-double in a win over Wayne City (15 points 13 rebounds).

-Stella Hall scored 24 in a win over Flora, and was named to Merry Mule All Tournament Team.

-Mount Vernon hosted the First Annual Lady Cats Shootout involving youth programs grades 2-7 from surrounding area schools.

-And Aubrey Grimes’ double-double came in the sectional win over Bosse (12 points 10 rebounds).

“We have two freshman that started for us returning so we are excited to see them continue to contribute next year, as well as juniors Gloria Guerrero and Kinnaudy Price,” he said. “Both played increased minutes in our sectional semifinal game when Stella was out. The growth in each one of these players since last season has been remarkable and we are excited to see how they continue to develop”

The Wildcats are looking to get help from a strong incoming eighth grade team that made it to the conference semi-finals only and lost by only one point on a last second shot.

“We are excited to have them join us next year,” he said with a smile. “We have had chances to combine with them in the summer and on occasion in the season. They have a really “We are excited to have them join us next year,” he said with a smile. “We have had chances to combine with them in the summer and on occasion in the season. They have a really solid well-rounded group that has played together for awhile and get the game really well for their age.”

Alderman knows that wins typically increase interest and he hopes to build some interest and hopefully increase the numbers back to field a more consistent reserve team. The numbers this season did not allow the team to play very many reserve games and more numbers will ensure the team gets development from the underclassmen and keep them playing games.

“It has been nice for our team to have drawn a little more interest and support from the community,” Alderman explained. “We are trying our best to rebuild interest in the program from the students’ perspective as well and continue to grow it at all grades.”

As for the future, the coach believes the numbers in the elementary schools and sixth grade classes are where they need to be but hopefully some of the buzz turns into interest to get some of the junior high and high school numbers increased regarding JV games and depth for our junior high teams in addition to the changes seen with the younger grades.

“Right now we are giving the kids some time off to rest and prepare for spring sports,” he said, realizing many of his team members are multiple-sport athletes. “We will sit down with each high school player next week to begin to plan our spring and summer schedules and will probably roll the balls back out in the limited contact period sometime in April.”