The final season of Hopkinsville Lady Tiger basketball will feature a ‘youth movement’ with several new faces seeing significant playing time in 2025-2026. Coach Keith Leslie begins his fifth season at the helm of the Lady Tiger program with several key slots to fill and will be looking for some of his returning players to step into bigger roles as his team looks to make a return trip to the 2nd Region tournament.
Gone from last season’s 10-13 team that reached the 2nd Region quarterfinals are the top four scorers and four of the top five rebounders. Alicia Davis (13.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Lashanti Wilson (12.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg), LeLe Love (10.4 ppg, 9.5 rpg), and TaRia Sharber (5.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg), all graduated in May and leave Coach Leslie with some big shoes to fill.
Sophomores Dominique Allensworth and Laelah Watkins figure to see their roles increase significantly. The duo are the only returning players for the Lady Tigers to see action in at least 20 games last season with Allensworth playing in 22 and Watkins seeing action in 21.
Allensworth is the top returning scorer and rebounder for Hopkinsville. She averaged 4.1 points and 3.8 rebounds during the 2024-2025 season. She was the best shooter for the Lady Tigers at 45.7 percent from the field.
Watkins averaged 3.4 points and 1.6 rebounds per game last season.
Junior Kaveyah White saw action in 17 games for the Lady Tigers and scored 2.8 points per game while pulling down an average of one rebound per contest. She should get the chance to see those numbers go up significantly in 2025-2026.
Serenity Ewing, a sophomore, and Amani Pizana, a senior, played in 18 and 17 games respectively last year for the Lady Tigers and figure to see much more action on the court this season.
Beyond that, no player saw action in more thn 8 games for Coach Leslie last season, leaving plenty of opportunities for new faces to quickly make themselves known to Lady Tiger fans as the season gets underway. That group includes sophomore Braelyn Gaines and freshman Emery Wilson.
Improved shooting from the field would aid in the maturing process for the young Lady Tigers. Hopkinsville hit 37.3 percent from the field and 26.6 percent from behind the 3-point line last season. Outside of Allensworth, White, Watkins, and Gaines are among the top returning shooters for the Lady Tigers.
Look for the Lady Tigers to continue to try and create offense with their defense. Coach Leslie’s squads have been known to play hard nose, wall-to-wall defense and try to cause chaos for the opposing team’s offense. No reason to expect that to change this year.
In terms of the schedule, Hopkinsville’s home slate includes games against Webster County, Apollo, Caldwell County, McLean County, and Logan County.
On the road, the Lady Tigers will face Warren Central, Lyon County, Muhlenberg County, Owensboro, Hopkins Central, and Henderson County.
And, there will be the run through the district with games against Christian County, Fort Campbell, and Heritage Christian.
The Lady Tigers will officially open their final season of basketball Monday night as they go on the road to take on the Warren Central Lady Dragons.
