Ashley Ridge Girls Added Depth

By Roger Lee

Contributing Writer

Summerville – The Ashley Ridge Girls Basketball team is out to top last year’s success.



The Swamp Foxes return eight varsity lettermen from last season when the team won its region championship and advanced to the third round of the playoffs before being eliminated by eventual 5A Champion Sumter.

“Most of our seniors have been with our program for three years and a lot of them played varsity when they were sophomores so it has been nice to see their maturation,” Ashley Ridge coach Jimmy Brown said. “We have added some depth so we really can go 10 or 11 deep.”

The Swamp Foxes added six players to their roster. The team has eight seniors, five juniors and two sophomores.

Senior transfer student Skyla Tuthill, who surpassed the 1,000^th point scored bench mark early in her high school career and has signed to play for Rice University, was selected as one of the 5A, Division 1 Top 5 Seniors this preseason.

The Swamp Foxes also picked up a pair of junior transfers during the offseason. Andrea Kelly transferred from Burke and LaChar Lawrence transferred from Cane Bay.

Ashley Ridge graduated its starting center, but continues to have success. The Swamp Foxes lost their season opener to Lexington, falling 69-68, but they haven’t lost since. Last week the team improved to 14-1.

“We are a totally different team this year,” Brown said. “We don’t have the traditional big so we are more guard oriented. We have a nice rotation with Nubia McElveen, Andrea Kelly and Samiah Boatwright.”

McElveen is one of the seniors who brings considerable experience to the court.

“Nubia sets the tone for us,” Brown said. “She is the heart and soul of our team. We feed off her energy, defense and rebounding and toughness. Katie Johnson also does a good job helping defend other teams’ bigs.”

Senior Kaylin Brown returned at point guard and senior Briana Davidson is also back with a lot of guard experience. Seniors Nadia President, Taleyah Hartzog and Alaina Duggins also returned.

Other members of the team are Jameson Foley, Logan Hardy, Ella Reck and Treneay Alston.  Ashley Ridge went 3-0 during the 2024 Carolina Invitational tournament Dec. 27-30 and then defeated Beaufort 64-47 on the road Jan. 3.

Tuthill led Ashley Ridge over Beaufort, scoring a game-high 18 points. Foley added 9 points while Lawrence, Hartzog and Boatwright all contributed 6 points. Tuthill also led the team in rebounds with 7 and senior Kaylin Brown had 5 rebounds.

Ashley Ridge faced stiff competition during the holiday tournament but came out on top against South River of Maryland, East Forsyth of Georgia and Georgetown of Texas.

According to school officials, Georgetown coach Rhonda Farney has the most career coaching wins of any active basketball coach in the nation with more than 1,200 victories. Brown, a longtime Lowcountry coach, led the Swamp Foxes to a 56-51 victory over Georgetown Dec. 30.

Tuthill finished the game with a team-high 17 points. Johnson added 10 points and Davidson added 7. Tuthill and Johnson both had 6 rebounds and McElveen had 5.