Playing point guard inside Burton Coliseum carries almost a mythical, sometimes unnerving, mystique. The best woman to ever do it, Caitlyn Baggett, has her jersey hanging high above the rafters. Her successor, Jalyn Johnson, has more assists than anyone in McNeese State history and is the program’s seventh-leading scorer.
Keara Hudnall, who toiled for two seasons as Johnson’s backup, tore her ACL this preseason. Caitlin Davis came from Breaux Bridge High School with enough clout to warrant early playing time, but Kacie Cryer’s reassuring, veteran option was now nonexistent.
Urgently, Davis was needed to take hold of the job.
“She’s separating herself,” the first-year Cowgirls coach said. “But (she) doesn’t pay any attention to that stuff, really none of them do, that’s what we’ve instilled and that’s our mindset. She’s got a great opportunity to continue that legacy we’ve had of having good point guards.”
To think it all came naturally to Davis, a 5-foot-7 speedster who few can stop off the dribble, is incorrect. Davis sits on press row following Thursday’s practice sharing stories of her senior season at Breaux Bridge High School.
As a junior, Davis and Louisiana Tech sophomore Jasmine LeBlanc stymied opposing teams and shared an equal workload. LeBlanc left for college, the team was a tad weaker and Davis attempted to compensate in her final high school season.
“During timeouts I was like laying down on the ground,” Davis says. “It was a lot, I had to do everything, both offense and defense.”
Talent was weaker, and slower, so Davis hardly needed organization or plays. She could, and did, outclass opponents on natural ability and that aforementioned speed.
“I didn’t have to really do much,” Davis admits, “I was playing off talent. But coming to college was a huge adjustment.”
Black jerseys swarmed around her on every touch of the basketball Nov. 12. Davis tried to advance up court but was denied by two lanky, trapping UL-Lafayette players in the first game of her collegiate career.
Down by as many as 16 in the first half, this was the Ragin Cajuns’ final resort — an aggressive, full-court assault on any of the Cowgirls’ ballhandlers.
“Yeah,” Davis sighs. “I had never had a press that intense … Welcome to college.”
Cryer’s fears were allayed that afternoon, the final result — a 77-70 loss in her first game as a head coach — notwithstanding. She’d scheduled this game, and the four at Burton Coliseum that followed it, with the sole purpose of finding her point guard.
Davis turned the ball over five times — three in the second half against the press — and missed eight of her 11 shots in 25 minutes.
“Even though we were a little frantic and stuff,” Cryer says 47 days later, “the way she handled herself was impressive for a freshman. It eased us.”
Davis has not turned the ball over in her last 40 minutes of basketball. She averages nearly four assists per game, now cognizant of the weapons around her. Davis is one of four players that average eight or more points per game, her most common weapon a drive of the lane to the rim for layups.
“There’s not a lot of people who can stop you,” Cryer tells Davis.
“And that’s just really kind of been a fact, you’ve seen it,” the coach says. “I want her to do both, be a facilitator and score the basketball. Similar to what Jayln Johnson was and Caitlyn (Baggett) … With her, you have to respect both.”
Another hurdle is left to clear. Southland Conference play begins Saturday in Prather Coliseum against a Northwestern State team searching for graduated point guard Janelle Perez’s heir apparent.
Sound familiar?
“They’re really still trying to find themselves in that 1-spot,” Cryer says. “Which I felt like we really have.”
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