Chesterfield Hoopsters Competing Well In Region
By David Shelton
Senior Writer
Chesterfield – Region play is the most important part of the regular season and ramping up the intensity and focus is paramount for any team hoping to contend for a region title and state playoff berth.
To that end, a young but up and coming Chesterfield girls basketball team is competing well in the early part of their 2025-26 region 4-AA schedule. The Lady Rams won four of their first six region games and were 10-7 overall this season as of Jan. 18. The team won 11 games all of last season.
“We are playing pretty well so far,” said head coach Nick Jolly earlier this season. “This is a competitive team. We’re still fairly young overall but we have some talented girls. We will make youthful mistakes but we will learn from those mistakes and work hard to correct things as we go. I definitely feel good about the potential.”
Chesterfield regularly starts four sophomores and Jolly’s top two players are sophomores Reagan Rivers and Yaya Robinson. Rivers was a class AA all-state selection as a freshman, averaging 14 points and eight rebounds per game. This season, she is averaging 14.6 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. She also dishes 3.4 assists per game and has nearly three steals per contest.
Robinson averaged 13.9 points last season and is at 15.9 points per game this season. Eighth-grader Le’Asia Brown is leading the team in rebounds, grabbing 9.9 boards per game while scoring 6.7 rebounds per contest this season.
Sopho,ore Ki’Yonna Peurifoy is pulling down 7.0 rebounds per contest while senior Jordan Evans is adding 2.6 steals and nearly two assists per game.
Sophomore Alivia Honeycutt scores about three points and pulls down 4.5 rebounds per game. She also averages close to four blocked shots per outing.
Sophomore Tayler McCoy is adding six points per game. Senior Jaylen Evans, along with junior Kaylee Leonard, see considerable minutes as well.
Freshman Taylee Clyburn, sophomore Ava Knight, freshman Kamari Patterson, freshman Allison Brown, and senior Jenna Kelly round out this year’s squad.
Jolly says his biggest point of emphasis in the early season has been physical toughness.
“With the youth, sometimes they play a little timid,” the coach said. “I keep telling them we have to play tougher. They are responding well. I’m pretty happy with where we are and I know we are going to continue to grow and improve as we play more. We will compete with most of the teams that we play.”
The boys team went 1-12 against non-region competition in December but is showing solid growth in region play with an early 2-2 record.
Senior leaders and team captains are Kamron Patterson, Derrick Lockhart, Ronnie Little and Josh Miller. Juniors include Amir Pickett, Jackson Dalton, Mark Moten, Josh Bittle, Jayden Johnson, Treyvon Smith and DJ Merriman.
Rounding out the roster are sophomores Jamison Dalton and Holden Lowry.
