Whitesville Trinity is prepared to take another step forward as a girls basketball program within the 12th District, and the Lady Raiders will look to reach the regional tournament for the first time since 2018-19.

Trinity lost three seniors from last season’s 10-17 campaign and returns a relatively young — but hungry — group.

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“We’re still improving, and we’re still young,” Trinity head coach Emily Hernandez said. “We don’t have any seniors, we have one junior, we have several sophomores and freshmen, and we still have middle schoolers playing for us.

“Watching what they did as far as their improvement last year was unbelievable. We just made huge strides last year.”

Eighth-grader Rylynne Meserve (11.2 ppg) is the returning leading scorer for the Lady Raiders, who will also benefit from the return of eighth-grader Preslee Meserve (7.7 ppg) and sophomores Ella Morris (7.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and Sophie Hatfield (6.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg), among others.

This year, Hernandez said she wants to see an improved effort on the defensive side of the floor.

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“Defensively, we never got to where I wanted them to be, so that’s my focus,” she said. “This entire summer, we were focused on playing defense.

“I think that a lot of our defense creates our offense. We have to be able to transition from that defense to the offense. Last year, at times, we turned the ball over too much with that. I like to play fast, but I like to play fast and keep the ball under control.”

Butler CountyThe Lady Bears lost just one senior from last year’s team that went 11-15 and return their top four scorers.

Junior forward Ava Wilson (16.8 ppg, 10.6 rpg), senior forward Ann Marie Skaggs (12.7 ppg, 6.6 rpg), sophomore forward Carly Cardwell (9.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg) and senior guard Karrington Hunt (6.5 ppg) are expected to lead Butler County, which is seeking its second district title in the last three years.

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Edmonson County

The defending 12th District champions, the Lady Cats strung together a 14-game winning streak last year before falling in the first round of the 3rd Region Tournament.

Edmonson County finished 19-9 overall and 7-1 in district competition a season ago. Powering the Lady Cats will be senior center Cariann Williams, who averaged a double-double with 18 points and 13.5 rebounds per game as a junior.

Also back is junior point guard Shelby Sowders (12.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg), while coaches look for contributions from the team’s younger and less experienced players.

Grayson CountyThe Lady Cougars went 20-11 last season and finished as runners-up in the 12th District. Grayson County advanced to the second round of the regional tournament.

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The Lady Cougars lost four key seniors to graduation but return leading scorer Breigh Jones, who averaged 18.3 points per game a year ago. The sophomore guard will be joined by sophomore forward Payton Bowman (4.4 ppg), sophomore center Hannah Smith (4.1 ppg), senior center Lucy Tarrance (2.4 ppg) and others.