St. John’s Christian’s girls basketball team improved by seven wins on the hardwood in 2023-24 under first-year coach Tyler Davis.
The Cavaliers finished 9-15, playing their best ball at the end of the season. They ended the regular season with back-to-back victories and carried that momentum into the state tournament. After handling Lee Academy in the opening round, St. John’s Christian led Patrick Henry in the final minute of the quarterfinal round before falling in a heartbreaker.
“I’ve always been told it’s not how you start but how you finish,” Davis said. “Our girls were locked in. They were on a mission. They didn’t want the season to end. The girls grew to trust each other and had a tight bond. Everybody got so much better as the season progressed.”
There’s plenty of reason for optimism heading into the offseason, too. The Cavaliers lost some senior leadership, with Taylor Douet and Anna Full moving on. Still, they can return everybody else on the roster.
“Taylor and Anna left the program better than they found it,” Davis said.
In the returning group is sophomore forward Kylie Finley, who led the squad in scoring with more than 16 points per game. She took over games near the end of the season, going off for 32, 29, 25 and 31 points the final four times out for the Cavaliers. Finley also paced the Cavaliers in rebounding and earned all-region honors for the second time. Davis thinks she is an all-state candidate.
“I think she’s just scratching the surface,” he said. “She’s going to keep growing. I put a lot on her, even as an underclassman, and she jumped into that leadership role. It wasn’t just vocal. She was a leader off the floor.”
Three more starters can return for 2024-25 when the Cavaliers aim to make another big jump in the win column. Chandler Cumbie is another sophomore who made an impact.
“She started scoring a little more near the end,” Davis said. She hit four big free throws to help us win the playoff game. What she does for our team is hard to explain, and it doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet.”
More lettermen who can return are freshman Sarah Brunson, eighth-grader Lily McKnight, sophomore Reagan Ashby, junior Josie Sweatman, sophomore Olivia Kunkle and sophomore Adi Gordon.
“We want to get back to the style of basketball they’re used to playing around here,” Davis said. “I told them after the last game to remember the feeling of coming up just short and let that fuel you for next season. I told them they worked too hard to get better. Don’t let it drop off. We don’t want to wait to pick up a basketball until November.”
The Cavaliers get 12 practices over the summer.
