JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey announced Friday the signing of 2022 State Tournament MVP and 2023 Miss Basketball Finalist Abigail Johnson to the 2023 recruiting class.
"Getting someone of Abigail's caliber this late in the game was huge for us," Mincey said. "She's a very strong player with great mobility. She welcomes contact and will help us in being able to both score and defend on the block. It's unlikely she will get pushed around when and if she goes against taller players. She also brings the ability to score from the perimeter of which she has shown ability to knock down threes. She comes from a winning culture at Upperman always being a state title contender as well as her exposure team the TN Flight Silver. She has been coached at a high level and played in some big time games against great competition throughout her high school career. Abigail has a high basketball IQ and will fit in with our culture academically and athletically extremely well. She fills a much needed void I felt like we were going to potentially have on our team this year. Abigail will increase our 2023 class to four as she joins Karli Haworth, Mattie Nuckolls and Madelyn Ladd of which we were already excited about but Abigail makes this class that much stronger."
Polishing off a decorated career, Johnson was the runner-up for the Class 3A Miss Basketball award after posting 15.5 points and 9.7 rebounds as a senior shooting 65 percent from the field. In her career, the post player tallied 1,570 points and 1,107 rebounds racking up 32 double-doubles.
The 2023 laurel added to a laundry list of accolades joining district Freshman of the Year distinction in 2020 and all-district as a sophomore. In 2022, she was Class 3A state tournament MVP last season as a junior helping lead the Lady Bees to a state championship.
In the state tournament, Johnson was dominant starting with 23 points and nine rebounds in a 40-point blow out of East Hamilton to clinch a spot in the state tournament. Helping guide the team past Elizabethton, she led all scorers with 24 points on 10 of 14 shooting chipping in seven rebounds. In a narrow one-point win the state semifinals, the post tallied 20 points and nine boards going 8-for-9 from the field. In the championship outing, Johnson went 4-for-8 from the field finishing with 10 points collecting nine caroms in a 48-43 win over Jackson South.
Outside of basketball, Johnson graduated cum laude while also playing volleyball and softball at Upperman. As a senior she threw 33 feet, six inches in the shot put in her first track meet winning the event at the Cookeville Invitational and smashing the school record by six feet.
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