Carson-Newman Women’s Basketball Frontcourt Position Previews

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Posted: Oct 26, 2023

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – We complete our preview of the 2023-24 Carson-Newman women's basketball team by previewing the team's frontcourt players, with help from sophomore Keeleigh Rogers.

This position group sees just one player exit the program in graduating senior Harli Smith. She averaged 8.1 points per game on 42% shooting and grabbed 5.5 rebounds per night.

The Eagles are excited about the return of All-SAC forward Lindsey Taylor. The redshirt senior played in four games last season before sustaining a knee injury in the first quarter at North Georgia on Nov. 19 that saw her miss the final 25 games of the season. The former SAC Tournament MVP is a 2-time All-SAC First Team player who has a career average of 11.6 points and 6 rebounds per game, while shooting an impressive 61.7% from the field.

"It'll be great having her back," Carson-Newman forward Keeleigh Rogers said. "Just her size and ability to score the ball inside and defend, it'll be great having her back on both ends of the floor."

Rogers returns after a fine freshman season that saw her start more than half of the team's games. The forward made her presence felt on the glass, finishing the season with 6.1 boards a night, leading the team in that category seven different times. She also became a key distributor, finishing sixth in the SAC with a 1.67 assist to turnover ratio. She finished the year as C-N's second-best passer with 75 assists.

"It was really fun of course," Rogers said. "It was nerve wracking, but I learned a lot and gained a lot of experience especially for my freshman year. When Lindsey went down I knew I had to do something for the team and I knew she was a big key rebounder, so I thought I can do that and help us out. That and all the other little things that helps the team succeed."

Skylar Boshears returns for her senior season. She was one of three Lady Eagles to start and play in all 29 games this past season. Her junior year was highlighted by a career high 31 points against Mars Hill in which she a career-high 15 field goals on just 17 shots. In 80 career appearances, the forward has shot nearly 48% from the field, while averaging nine points per game for her career.

Ruthie Mbugua and Kali McMahan both return for their sophomore seasons. After redshirting her first year on campus, Mbugua competed in 26 games as a redshirt freshman and finished eighth in the SAC averaging more than a block per game. Her best game as an Eagle came on Dec 14, when she scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds. McMahan earned herself six starts in her 22 appearances. In her first career start against No. 8 North Georgia, she recorded career highs in points (15), rebounds (9) and steals (3).

"It will help tremendously that a lot of us do have experience playing and everything," Rogers said. "It will honestly help us learn more and succeed more just from losing one person. Having so much more experience will help us only get better."

Head coach Mike Mincey adds a pair of freshmen to his frontcourt group in Mattie Nuckolls and Abigail Johnson. Nuckolls is from Chatsworth, Ga, playing her high school basketball at Murray County. As a junior, Nuckolls was named a first-team All-State selection by the Georgia Coaches' Association after being All-Area and All-Region picks in each season. The forward is averaging 16 points per game and netted her 1,000th career point in game No. 64 of her career. Johnson is a 5'10 forward from Cookeville and played at Upperman. She 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 season opens with an exhibition content against Tennessee on Monday Oct 30 at 6:30 p.m. from Rocky Top, for a game airing on the Eagle Sports Network starting 15 minutes prior to tip-off with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off".