Goes By Fast

By Stefan Cooper
Editor
Blount Press Row

She’s so good going to her left now. Like, she’s nice with it.

Courtney Carruthers is closing on the finish line of one of the most prolific careers in Maryville College history as postseason arrives this week.

The Scots host Huntingdon College in a Collegiate Conference of the South Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday at Cooper Athletic Center.

Tipoff is 7 p.m.

Carruthers, a Maryville High graduate, sits atop the Maryville scoring tables this season with a 15 points per game average. The former Lady Rebel has held that spot for much of her career as a Scot, so much so the 5-foot-6 guard will end her days in orange and garnet top five — along with leaders Jamie Parrott, Leah Onks, Hayley Smith and McKenzie Puckett — on the list of the school’s all-time scoring greats.

Carruthers enters conference tournament play with better 1,600 points as a Scot. Her 112 made 3s and 55 steals pace Maryville this season, her assists totals trailing only freshman point guard Emily Allen.

Maryville coach Darrin Travillian isn’t surprised by any of it.

“Her third game here (as a freshman), she dropped 39 — at Emory,” he said. “It sounds silly to say it, but it was an easy 39.”

More impressive than some memorable feats of scoring is the complete player and team leader his lone senior has become during her career, Travillian said.

“I think she’s been a well-rounded competitor,” he said. “If her shot isn’t falling, she’s finding another way to attack.

“She and I sometimes joke about it. She’ll come up to me after a game and say, ‘You know I was our leading rebounder tonight.’ I’ll say, ‘Get out of here.'”

“I think we’ve just become a better team,” Carruthers said. “Everything just started to flow.”

The 2023-24 Scots speak volumes on that front.

After a slow start, Maryville roared to life the second half, winning nine of its last 12 to first earn the right to host a conference tournament game. Murfreesboro sophomore Ella Haney sits just back of Carruthers in scoring at 10.5 points per outing. Allen (8.2 points), Emma Huskey (7.2) and Olivia Cathers (5.3) pace a team that has taught itself to score from all angles.

“I’ve told people, ‘This group has probably improved more over the course of the season than any team I’ve had here,” Travallian said. “They trust each other to make plays. From Day 1, they’ve been unbelievably coachable and bought in.”

It’s the thing that’s made her final season at Maryville so memorable, Carruthers said.

“I was a very different person when I first started,” she said. “I had a lot of growing up to do. The people that I’ve played with and Coach T have been there with me along the way the whole time, and they’ve helped me grow into the person that I want to be.

“I’m just trying to take in these last few moments with everybody, and just have fun.”