HOT SPRINGS — The odds of having a successful girls basketball campaign didn’t appear to be in Hot Springs’ favor prior to the start of the 2015-2016 season, but junior forward Keyneso Hunter was determined to change her team’s outlook.
Hot Springs had lost its top three scorers from a year ago, not to mention several other key contributors from a team that won the 2015 Class 5A state championship. To make matters worse, the Lady Trojans would have to go through the season without head coach Mark Upshaw, who broke his hip just prior to the opener.
“It was tough, I have to say,” Hunter said of her team’s prognostications. “But I knew I had to be a leader. I wanted to help my team get to that next level anyway I could. So I was going to do my part and try and help us get as far as we could.”
On a team full of underclassmen, Hunter served as the catalyst for Hot Springs, which went 23-4, finished second in the 5A-South conference and advanced to the first round of the Class 5A state tournament. The Lady Trojans did come up short in their bid to repeat as champions, but behind the play of Hunter, they exceeded the expectations of many. As a result, Hunter has been named the Tri-Lakes Edition Girls Player of the Year.
“She made a lot of the players’ jobs easier,” coach Josh Smith, who stepped in for Upshaw, said of Hunter. “We weren’t sure at all how good we would be, but we did know that with her, we’d have a chance. She was our Energizer Bunny, and the girls fed off her.
“She was the glue for our team.”
Hunter, who’s known for her defensive prowess in the paint, did a little bit of everything and averaged 12 points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots and 2.6 steals per game for Hot Springs, which started the season 12-0 and won 14 of its first 15 games. During that 12-game winning streak, the Lady Trojans held eight of their opponents to 32 points or fewer. Smith, who served as an assistant coach for the boys team prior to taking over for Upshaw, said Hunter’s presence inside helped the team establish a true identity.
“When I came over, I knew we had some players that could play, but I just wasn’t sure where we stacked up against everyone else,” Smith said. “But one area where you can always give maximum effort is on defense, and that’s where [Hunter] thrived. She is so active and talkative, always getting players in the right spot.
“She would usually be the one to start our transition game whenever she’d get a block. She simply outworked people on that end of the floor, and it would usually carry over on offense.”
Hunter, who had a nine-block game this year and flirted with triple doubles, kept Hot Springs a step ahead of its opposition for the majority of the season. The Lady Trojans didn’t lose their first game until Jan. 8 at Magnolia, 42-38, and lost both of its league games to eventual champion Watson Chapel, including a 58-44 home loss in what was essentially the de facto conference-title game. Hot Springs’ only other loss came to Nettleton, 57-49, in the opening round of the state tournament.
“We came up short in what we wanted to accomplish, but overall, I thought the season was good,” Hunter said. “There were some things that we could have done better. For me, I think I could have done some things differently.
“But it was a learning experience. We had a pretty young team.”
It was a learning experience of sorts for Smith, as well. For a team that had just three players who had seen significant playing time last season, Smith got the Lady Trojans to gel quickly and had them in position to win every game on their schedule.
“When we won that tournament in Lake Hamilton, I think we started to believe that we could be pretty good,” Smith said, “but there’s always the unknown when you have a young team.”
Aside from Hunter, Smith eventually got steady seasons from sophomore guards Ariana Giunn and Imani Honey, both of whom were all-state picks. So Hot Springs will have a solid nucleus returning next season.
But Smith said it all starts with Hunter, who decided to join the track team, as well.
“She’s got so much athletic ability,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on this team to try to repeat, but she was that calming influence. And the thing about it is that she can get better.
“I think she has a legit shot to play college ball somewhere.”
Hunter, too, believes she can improve on her game between now and the start of her senior season.
“I want to work more on my post moves, work on having a better shot selection,” she said. “I just have a few things I need to touch up on to hopefully make us a better team next year.”