VIDEO: Madison Bunch Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With the start of basketball season looming, we wrap up a look at the 2020-21 Carson-Newman women's basketball position previews taking a glance at the backcourt with senior guard Madison Bunch.
The lone departure for this unit was Tori Griffin who appeared in 112 career games over four 20-win campaigns. She improved every season in uniform netting nine points per game as a senior and making 102 career three-pointers. Griffin posted double figures 27 times notching a pair of 20-point efforts in her final season.
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) is the biggest returning piece to the team after racking up five honors as a rookie. She was the lone underclassmen to be named to an all-region team from the Southeast last year after being named the South Atlantic Conference's Freshman of the Year of the first-team all-league.
Wykle produced one of the best freshman seasons in the history of the program. During the conference's regular-season, she was second in the league in scoring at 18.6 points per game, first in three-point percentage and second in field-goal percentage. The rookie scored in double figures 24 times and posted 13 contests with at least 20. One of the best three-point shooters in the nation, Wykle ranked 12th in the nation in percentage at 44 from long range making 76 to rank second in the conference and rank 46th nationally.
"She has the ball handling and the control that we need from a point guard standard," Bunch said. "She can shoot the ball really well. She's very versatile and can pick up different areas of the court."
Bunch worked her way into the starting lineup as a junior picking up 14 starts averaging 13 minutes per night. She scored in double figures four times posting at least three assists five times with three games each of three-plus steals and three-plus triples. In her first-career start at Newberry on Jan. 18 scoring a dozen points on 4-for-7 shooting from deep chipping in five boards.
"I've been staying prepared and getting in the gym on our own time," Bunch said. "A big thing for me is filling in that leadership role for my teammates and getting them in the gym as well. Doing stuff on my own plus leading that into the team.
"I think it's important to play every game like it's one of your last. You never know when you will have to quarantine or other situations can arise so playing every game like it matters."
The final remaining starter from this unit will get her first full season at Mossy Creek after transferring from Lincoln Memorial. The former SAC Freshman of the Year finished fifth in the league in assists during league action with 82 despite playing three fewer games than everyone else. The Gatlinburg, Tenn. native notched at least three assists in 14 of her 22 contests including a career-high nine in the SAC Quarterfinals against Lenoir-Rhyne. Among a host of stat-sheet stuffing efforts, Hines scored 11 points adding six steals and five assists in a 31-point win over Newberry in the regular-season finale.
Abby Wilson (Kingston, Tenn.), one of the team's top reserves, played in 25 games and handed out 40 assists. The high-energy guard posted four double-digit scoring efforts including a career high 16 points over 16 minutes against Lenoir-Rhyne on Feb. 12.
Taylor Goforth (Friendsville, Tenn.) saw action in 26 games making 19 of 33 shots inside of the three-point arc posting 63 total points on the year. The junior tallied a career-high nine points adding five boards and three assists at Mars Hill on Feb. 5
The lone newcomer to the group transferred from Furman in the middle of the season to Eagle country. Skylar Boshears (LaFollette, Tenn.) scored nearly 2,000 points in her high school career leading Campbell County with 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals while shooting 54 percent from the field during her senior season in 2018-19.
"I think Skylar is a great girl whenever it comes to being shifty especially from me guarding her in practice," Bunch said. "She is a great play and has a good mid-range game. She is like another Addison Byrd so she will be very helpful."
Carson-Newman is slated to open the year at Coker on Nov. 21 with a 2 p.m. tip-off on the schedule from the DeLoach Center. Broadcast coverage on the Eagle Sports Network airs at 1:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative".
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