When Taylor Flake began her freshman season with the Hannibal-LaGrange women’s basketball team in November, she always had her mother, Kelly, on her mind.

Kelly was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2021. That forced Flake, a 2021 Montgomery County graduate, to make frequent trips home to check up on her mother.

“My mom’s situation made it very tough,” Flake said.

Still, Flake finished with a strong season for the Trojans, who won just four games. She was the team’s fourth-leading scorer at 5.6 points per game and was second on the squad in rebounds at 4.7 boards per contest.

“I definitely had a lot of fun,” Flake said. “I made a lot of really good friendships. It was an awesome experience, especially like going to Arkansas and playing other teams. We have a good conference. We’re a Christian school, so that makes it a lot better. We all pray together before and after games.”

Flake played in 18 games and started in nine. She missed several games due to a concussion and COVID-19.

“It was kind of a rough year,” Flake said.

Flake enjoyed an outstanding career at MCHS, scoring 972 points, earning three all-Eastern Missouri Conference awards and helping the Wildcats finish with four winning seasons. Flake signed to play for Hannibal-LaGrange just a month after her senior basketball season began.

Flake began her freshman season at Hannibal-LaGrange, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school, with a four-point effort against Iowa Wesleyan on Nov. 5 at home. She finished in double figures four times.

Flake said she improved tremendously during the second half of the season. In a home game on Feb. 14 against Williams Baptist (Ark.), she finished with a double-double – scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds – and helped her team pull off a 71-66 win.

“In the beginning of the year, I was freaking out because it’s college basketball,” said Flake, who was one of five freshmen on the Hannibal-LaGrange team. “But after my concussion and COVID, I just went all out.”

Flake enjoyed a successful year in the classroom. She was one of 13 players named to the all-American Midwest Conference academic team.

“College is not very easy, especially with everything going on and basketball,” said Flake, who is majoring in nursing. “Grades were definitely my top priority this year.”

Flake said she was happy that she got fan support from her mother during her freshman year at Hannibal-LaGrange.

“She made it to the closer games, like the ones in St. Louis,” Flake said. “She couldn’t make it to most of the ones in Hannibal. She did really well for her condition. She really did make it to a lot of games.”

Flake is already excited about her sophomore season.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Flake said. “I didn’t gain my confidence until the end of my freshman year. Hopefully, the confidence stays. I’ve been working with Darrell Johnson with Cross Over Hoops and he helped me out a lot. So I really hope that I can really go off this year.”