Head Coach Jeff Mahoney enjoyed a solid season in his first year leading the Cameron women’s basketball team. Given the late start to the recruiting cycle, and keeping the majority of the team together through the transfer portal, he navigated his first offseason as well as possible.
It was clear that the Aggies were able to adjust to his coaching style quickly and held strong through an extremely competitive campaign. The Aggies put aside their “live by the three, die by the three” offensive mentality and were able to bring out a more wellrounded offensive attack.
The Aggie women found a way to become less one-dimensional on offense but struggled to score as much as the previous season dropping from the second ranked offense to 14th in LSC, only putting up 61.3 points per game while also allowing a 14th ranked 67.1 PPG to conference opponents.
The defense would be the biggest thing holding back the Aggies success this season much like the year prior as a lack of size and aggression in the post and paint areas has hindered this team from reaching its full potential.
The Aggies experienced back to back first round exits from the Lonestar Conference playoffs the past two seasons, this year falling to Angelo State in a 70-62 heartbreaker to end out the season.
If all goes according to plan Mahoney should be able to keep most of this year’s roster intact and find a way to regain their offensive consistency while also continuing to improve a defense that this year allowed five less points per game then the 2021 season.
Alena Wilson cemented herself as a key member of this roster through her dynamic play all year. Wilson led the Aggies in both scoring (10.9 PPG) and rebounds per game (8.2) in her first year with the black-and-gold squad. Two returning players proved to both take massive jumps in their playing ability under Mahoney.
Korie Allensworth and Karley Miller showed off their sharpshooting skills all year as they both made drastic improvements to their play on the court.
Katie King, another important piece of last year’s squad, continued her sharp play on defense averaging a team leading 2.3 steals per game while also putting up 10 points and 3.8 assists a game.
Based on watching this team it is clear Mahoney needs to find a way to get more of his bench players involved in the rotations to make up for the lack of physicality in the backcourt.
Looking ahead to the upcoming recruiting cycle, the Aggies need to be focused on finding more depth in the post and trying to find some bigger players to defend the basket. With another year of experience the Aggies should be able to improve their late game situations and have a better overall understand of how to manage a LSC schedule.
Cameron only won four games away from the Aggie Gym this year, but with the roster improving and getting more mature, they should be able to improve on the road.
Overall, Mahoney had a successful first season as the Aggie bench boss and has a solid staff built around him, highlighted by defensive specialist Jamie Bonnarens, but how Cameron handles the ever-evolving transfer portal and recruiting process will determine their fate for next season.
