Week 12-Top Guards Monday Night

I was so excited when I caught Lady Thunder practice a couple of years ago and one of their players, [player_tooltip player_id="265538" first="Aliyah" last="Craft"] (Huntsville) impressed me so much that I immediately added her to the Top 100 on the next update. I love being in a position to see players I might miss due to the state being as large as it is, the numerous cliques and entities as well as the nonsense about "you have to be on a certain platform" yet a knowledgeable and reputable evaluator, I’m talking about me, knows and understands that "talent is everywhere" and Craft recently committed to Lamar so with that being said, Madisonville has other Thunder players that captured my attention at that practice so I’m breaking this down into two part from their game against Robinson <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/01/DSC_0002-crop-640x421-1643078159.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-380091" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/01/DSC_0002-crop-640x421-1643078159-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>MIKAYLA FORD</strong></p> <strong>2023</strong> <strong>Kayla Dickey-5’6 PG (Madisonville)</strong> Dickey gets #THROWBACK off the top and after watching her numerous times the past season, I came to the conclusion that she was one of the top guards in the state, and when you know where the bar has been set over the years, a knowledgeable person can make such statements yet her diving for loose balls on the floor, her on the ball defense and consistent pressure in the half-court all add to why I say that yet here’s the kicker, whether her team is up big or down big, she plays the same way, I love that but more importantly so do college coaches so when you add her playing the passing lane like she did last night, and score multiple times as well as scored or dished off the dribble, she also dropped the mid to long-range <strong>Mikayla Ford-5’6 SG (Madisonville)</strong> Ford is not in the FIXED OR REPAIRED DAILY category and her smoothness throughout the game played a huge part in her team’s win. Normally known for dropping the long ball, I was even more impressed with her creating her shot under pressure as well as getting to her spot to take the mid-range jumper. She also did a good job of hitting the boards, she plays within herself and did a good job staying in front of her man on defense <strong>Chantel Davis-5’6 CG (Madisonville)</strong> Davis gave me a nice "first look" and what I grabbed immediately was her "effort" as she too did a good job of going after balls and applying some heat on the defensive end. She understands how to get hers "in the flow" and she showed some nice passes via good court vision &nbsp; <strong>2024</strong> <strong>Shannon Casey-5’7 CG (Robinson)</strong> Casey has the right initials and observing her in the open court handling the ball was nice, so was her COP, that’s change of pace to get the defender off balance. She’s heady, she sees the floor, under pressure, and made some nice passes while being defended yet she also understands how to create her shot and she showed she could drop both the midrange as well as the long-range <strong>2025</strong> <strong>Kaygen Marshall-5’8 PG (Robinson)</strong> Marshall definitely left a lasting impression because as I’ve explained so many times what I look for in younger players playing against older players is how they "react" in certain situations and how they do things "instinctively" so off the top she made me glad I actually printed out the rosters so I could watch and tweet yet she watches too and made some tough passes look easy. Pressure doesn’t faze her, she finished strongly attacking the rim and this included after she played the passing lane but she also has good hands and played solid defense &nbsp;