4th Region Challenge – part 3
In this article:
Wrapping up the coverage of the State Farm 4th Region Challenge with 8 more players who made an impression on me and an impact on the games from last Saturday. It was a great way to start the season before…
Access all of Prep Girls Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingWrapping up the coverage of the State Farm 4th Region Challenge with 8 more players who made an impression on me and an impact on the games from last Saturday. It was a great way to start the season before I turn east with my coverage for the next two weeks at three locations in the 11th Region and begin the long grind of Christmas Tournaments hanging around the 5th 6th and 7th Region areas.
That grind is a rough one and with me Coaching now and not just Scouting I don’t know how much tougher it might be to regularly crank out content, but I am going to find out. I have probably already bitten off more than I can chew before the Holiday gets here I am still planning my post-Christmas Tournament schedule. If I did;t love my job(s) the dread of all the work I have to do would make me consider quitting right now. But then, what would I do?
It looks like I will see at least 4 other 4th Region teams play at least once during the holiday season assuming I have the energy to get out of bed and my health and the weather hold (fingers crossed). So check back to learn more about other players across the Commonwealth and maybe more about some of the players you are more familiar with from the 4th Region.
Landree Moons – 5′-9″ – G – Clinton County – ’24
Moons is getting interest from D1 schools because she is a solid defender who knows how to move her feet and has the toughness needed to draw the charge. She scored in the post with an outside turn on the left side of the lane and shoots the three in transition. She is adept at penetration from the top and the corner for the floater and the pull-up jumper when the layup is taken away. That is a great scoring package that makes her a threat anywhere on the court. I am always surprised at how many very good players only seem to be able to score in one of two ways during a game. Being able to score anywhere makes a player so much more effective and valuable on the next level.
As the leading returning scorer (12.6 points) and rebounder (6.4 rebounds) for the Lady Bulldogs, Moons has been averaging 17.5 points and 10.2 rebounds through the 1st four games of the new season. At the 4th Region Challenge, she posted 18 points, 10 rebounds, hit 33;3% of her threes (1/3). and made 36.8% of her shots (7/19). If a 2nd scorer can emerge on the team it would help trend the team towards more wins.
Alexis Taylor Alexis Taylor 5'10" | PF Todd County Central | 2025 State KY – 5′-9″ – F – Todd County Central – ’25
I noticed Taylor during warm-ups just by the way she was moving, which is to her credit because I normally do anything other than watch warm-ups. She is extremely agile and strong with very fluid movement skills that she puts to use on the basketball court. She made a block at one point that required a very adept level of balance to sidestep the shooter and then elevate to swap the shot. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out she is a multi-sport athlete or trained dancer based on her movement skills alone. Or she could just be well-coached in basketball fundamentals, I don;t ask too many questions to take up the lives of these amateur athletes. I just watch and write about what I see.
She did a great job early of burying her defender deep in the paint to then finish after a power dribble, and she penetrated to the mid-post for a 6-foot jumper. She finished her day with 17 points and an impressive 15 rebounds that she gathered in multiple ways. She shot 6 pf 13 from the field for 46.2% and made 5 points at the free throw line.
Malyea Partinger – 5′-5″ – G – Franklin-Simpson – ’23
Partinger speeds the ball up the court on the dribble and has excellent handles. She displays great elevation on her pull-up jumper and great shooting form which she demonstrated multiple times from 10 to 12 feet and three-point range. She penetrates past the 1st layer of defense repeatedly and makes good decisions on when to shoot, pass, draw the foul or keep moving.
Last Saturday she contributed 11 points and 6 rebounds on 30% field goal shooting, 33.3% three-point shooting, and 66.6% free throw shooting.
I want to note that when I say she is a jump shooter or makes a jumper that this is not basketball jargon where every shot that isn’t a layup is called a jumper etc. I want to stress that she has great elevation when she jumps and shoots, which seems like a rare skill these days, especially in girl’s basketball where a set shot is more common. Maybe that is just in my experience.
Kaidence Byrd – 5′-2″ – G – Glasgow – ’23
Byrd impacts the game by keeping her eyes down the court in transition looking to feed teammates for layups and transition threes. She also shoots the three in transition or out of the offense and made both of her free throws last Saturday. She has yet to really separate herself from among the pack of her fairly deep team but I believe she could. In the game I watched she scored 10 points and grabbed 2 rebounds, which is good for a small Guard. She made 40% of her threes (2/5) last week and 100% of her free throws which is not unusual for a player that made 75.8% of them last season.
Paisley Ford – 5′-8″ – G – Monroe County – ’23
Ford is one of many talented players that play hard on both ends of the court for the Lady Falcons. She put in a layup after a strong wing cut to the basket, another off of a lob pass from the wing, and scored an 8-footer through the contact of a foul. She made a highly respectable 50% of her shots from the floor (5/10) and is credited for making 3 out of 3 free throws on the day on her way to a 13-point, 3-rebound performance.
Brynley Hatcher – 5′-9″ – F – Monroe County – ’23
Hatcher did not score a lot, 6 points, but she pulled down 8 key rebounds against an opponent that was dominating the glass and beat the Lady Falcons by 10 Rebounds in that statistic. Her 8 rebounds were important. In addition, she was highly efficient on offense despite not taking many shots. She shot 50% from the field (2/4), 50% from three (1/2), and 50% at the free throw line (1/2). She made the lob assist I just spoke about that her teammate scored a layup on.
Ann Ashley Atkinson – 5′-8″ – G – Barren County – ’26
Atkinson came on stronger in the 2nd half, which is not surprising for a freshman this early in the season, they often need some time to ease into the game. She made a tough layup after a curl cut to the mid-post, was fouled, and completed the And 1 free throw. She also picked up a loose ball for a layup by being alert for an opportunistic score. She ended the day with 8 points, 4 rebounds on 60% shooting from the field (3/5), 50% (1/2) from three-point range, and made her only free throw.
You will see her name in our next updated Rankings for the class of 2026 in a week or two. She might be ranked very low, even last, but that will reflect more of my ignorance of the class of 2026 at the moment than her actual position among other top Freshmen in the Commonwealth. I have been heavily focused on the classes of ’22, ’23, and ’24 over the past season to make sure those players who most needed the coverage got it. It has been the right approach in my opinion but it has severely hampered my knowledge of the classes of ’25 and ”26. So I won’t be able to argue she should be ranked above or below any other players. But just being on the list will get her noticed by other PGH Scouts (and some Coaches that read our site) and will remind us to keep an eye on her in the future.
Katy Smiley Katy Smiley 6'0" | SG Bowling Green | 2025 State KY – 5′-7″ – G – Bowling Green – ’25
Smiley made 80% of her three-point attempts (4/5) in the game, hitting them from the right wing, top of the key, and two from the left corner,. She finished the day with 12 points and 3 rebounds. She is going to be a key contributor to the team in providing some scoring punch off of the bench this season.
Franklin