The Mountain Lion Talk

Net Scorcher (Most season points) Current Standings 1. Mackenzie Johnson (135)  2. JaMari Frederick (96)  3. Trinity Edwards (76)  4. Kalen Surles (70)  5. Dustie Obah (55) 6. Magdalene Adebanjo (40) 7. Kaela Ward (35)  8. Lily Griffith (20) 9. Carly Winters (6) 10. Eline Romijn (4) *Kennedi Henson, Andelin Hill, Payton Morrow and Christina Nichols haven't yet scored this season The 2022-23 season will resume January 1st against Lenoir-Rhyne and January 4th against Clayton State     

1. Ladondra Johnson (1,598) 2. Lauren Smith (1,004) 3. Briana Bell (885) 4. Peyton Robertson (846) 5. Niaya White (814) 6. Meredith Tarver (787) 7. Carly Winters (758) 8. Shereese Williams (667) 9. Junior Mackenzie Johnson (655) 10. Keta Robinette (654) 

Junior Dustie Obah finished as the leading scorer for the first time this season with 18 points to go with four three-pointers  Junior Mackenzie Johnson tallied a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double for her seventh in nine games this season. This gives her 655 career points, the new ninth-best mark in women's basketball history Junior Trinity Edwards led the bench players with 16 points  Eight of ten that saw action in the game grabbed at least one rebound  Sophomore Magdalene Adebanjo and Edwards both recorded foul-free games with at least twenty minutes of action  The Mountain Lions were a perfect 12-for-12 from the charity stripe  Freshman Kaela Ward and classmate Lily Griffith both tallied three rebounds, with Ward logging 21 minutes and Griffith 19   

Junior Mackenzie Johnson is at it again. After 16 points against Saint Leo- part of her sixth double-double in eight games this season- she's tallied 643 points over her now 72-game career, extending her tenth-best points total for the women's program. She's now twelve points shy of passing Keta Robinette for ninth while the eighth-best mark is Shereese Williams with 667.  She started the season fourteenth all-time and has passed Sarah Woghiren, Kaycee Cash, Jenny Vernet and Breanna Gleeson. Then there's classmate Kalen Surles , who has 420 career points after a twelve-point outing and is now 32 points away from moving into the top fifteen 

With the women's golf team set to resume their season March 13th and 14th at the Converse Spring Invitational, let's take a look at how many tournaments each team member has been in.  Sophomore Connor Johnson has appeared in eleven tournaments in her career, with her tenth appearance being at the LeeAnn Noble Memorial in October. She's seven competitions away from surpassing alumnus Erica Andersson   Junior Sarah Comer has appeared in seven tournaments With this being her first season, freshman Lucy Weigert has appeared in all three competitions, while her classmate Alanis Santiago Maldonado has competed twice, and fellow freshman Tamara Brito has turned in a scorecard in one competition thus far Another freshman, Jenna Wallace, has yet to appear  

Welcome back to the second installment of Throwback Thursday, where we look back on former Mountain Lions who helped to Defend the Den during their careers.  The first installment looked at women's basketball alumnus Ladondra Johnson, who holds career records for points, rebounds, blocks and field goals despite appearing in the ninth-most games in program history.  This installment looks at men's soccer alumnus Ilija Ilic, who finished his 72-game Young Harris career in 2014 and remains the top offensive-production machine in the program's NCAA-era history: *A program-record 64 goals and the only fifty-goal scorer on the men's side *A program-record 31 assists and one of two- along with Lewis Hilton- to dish thirty assists in a career  *A program-record 159 points, which is 54 more than second place and over a hundred ahead of the next-closest active player  *And a program-record nine penalty kicks made at a 90% clip 

Sophomore Karl Chavis has started all forty-three appearances and has a 13.3 scoring average with 571 points. His eighth-best 173 career free throws have come at a 74.9% clip. With 1,258 minutes he's fifteen shy of moving into the top fifteen   Senior Lenny Pradia has not only appeared in thirty varsity games, but he also has 100 varsity assists and is currently ninth on the all-time list with 104 helpers. Eighth on the list is Bryson Robertson with 139 Sophomore Carl Cleveland is thirty minutes away from the 1,000 mark thirty-six games into his career and has 447 points  

12th: Lindsay Caudell (80) 13th: Meghan McQuade (76) 14th: Junior Mackenzie Johnson (71) 15th: Junior Kalen Surles (70) 

On the women's side, junior Mackenzie Johnson has now tallied seventy appearances for the Mountain Lions. Her 608 points extends her tenth-best scoring total and she's now just 60 away from moving into the top twenty for career points across both programs. With 543 rebounds, she's ten away from moving into second all-time and surpassing Shereese Williams. She's also now fifth in terms of offensive rebounds with 133, surpassing Pamela Diokpara, while her 410 defensive rebounds extends her second-best total. Only Ladondra Johnson (506) has more.   Her classmate Kalen Surles reached two milestone against Georgia College, with her five points giving her 400 for her career (currently at 401) and reaching exactly 100 steals. Briana Bell has the fourth-best mark with 106. Her 237 assists, meanwhile, extends her second-best women's mark and fifth-best program mark.   After missing the first five games of the season, senior Carly Winters had a 1-for-4 showing from behind ...

Rebounds Mackenzie Johnson has 532 boards in her 69-game career, extending her third-place mark. Shereese Williams is in second with 552 Assists Mackenzie Johnson has 79 in her career and is five shy of moving past Meredith Tarver and into the top fifteen  Offensive Rebounds Mackenzie Johnson's 130 offensive rebounds are sixth-most in program history. She needs three to move past Pamela Diokpara and into the top five   Defensive Rebounds Mackenzie Johnson has 402 defensive boards in her career, extending her second-best mark and becoming the second to reach the 400-club after Ladondra Johnson   Free Throws Made Mackenzie Johnson now has 96, which is tied for tenth with Sarah Woghiren. She started the season fifteenth with 72, meaning she's passed Pamela Diokpara, Sara Jorgensen, Carly Winters and Ashlyn Ellison  

Throwback Thursday is a new feature where I'll look back on former athletes who've worn the purple and white and helped to Defend the Den.  This first installment looks back on Ladondra Johnson, arguably the best women's basketballer and one of the best basketballers in program history.  *Her 1,598 points is the women's record and second-most behind only CJ Wilson  *Her 17.6 68-minimum-game scoring average is not only the program record, but she achieved it with nine fewer games than the runner-up *Her 698 career field goals is the most across the men's and women's categories. CJ Wilson has the second-most but he's sixty-three back  *She's one of three in women's history with 200 free throws, along with Lauren Smith and Briana Bell   *She's the only women's basketballer with 700 rebounds, 500 defensive rebounds, 250 offensive rebounds and 70 blocks  *And she's done all this with the ninth -most games played on the women's side with 9...

Right-hander Jill Dixon is returning for her senior season. Let's see where she ranks on the NCAA-era career lists. Her 18 wins is part of a three-way tie for sixth and she needs two to surpass Katie-Jo Gentry for fifth.   With two saves, she's one away from being sixth by herself and six away from taking the NCAA-era record from Nikkie Kovalsky.  She's one away from her fiftieth appearance. Current assistant coach Sam Davis is currently sixth with 55 appearances. Her 183 and 2/3 innings pitched, 151 strikeouts, 148 fly-outs and 232 ground-outs are all currently seventh all-time.  She can move from a tie for sixth (again with Davis) into sixth by herself with one start. 

Saturday: Women v. Lenoir-Rhyne Junior Mackenzie Johnson tallied her fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds, extending her tenth-best career points mark with exactly 600. She's now 68 points away from surpassing Shereese Williams for the twentieth-most points in Young Harris' NCAA-era basketball history. Looking Ahead: Saturday, December 10th Junior Kalen Surles can reach 400 career points (she currently has 396) and is one away from triple-digit career steals. It's worth noting that Sara Jorgensen's 451 career points is fifteenth-most in team history. *Kalen's 99 steals is fifth-most on the women's career list. Briana Bell is fourth with 106 and Shereese Williams is third with 124.    Sunday: Men v. Virginia-Wise Senior Lenny Pradia dished out seven assists in the win as the Mountain Lions notched their first-ever 6-0 start in program history. His third assist was the ninetieth of his varsity career after an unknown amount of games...

Through the Lenoir-Rhyne game on December 3rd 12th: Lindsay Caudell with 80 13th: Meghan McQuade with 76 New at 14th: Junior Mackenzie Johnson with 69 Now tied for 15th: Junior Kalen Surles and Niaya White with 68