One year removed from winning the TSSAA Miss Basketball for Class AA, Elizabethton’s Kayla Marosites finds herself in contention for possibly winning in back-to-back seasons as the 2016 finalist were released on Friday.

Marosites joins Akira Levy of Upperman High School and Jacobi Lynn of McMinn Central High School as the three finalists for the prestigious award.

The winner will be crowned on the floor of the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University on Tuesday, March 8^th at 7 pm.

This is the day before the state girls tournament kicks off.

Marosites is averaging 22.4 points per game for the Lady Cyclones who are the top-ranked team in girls Class AA basketball in the state.

She averages 9.8 rebounds, 3.1 steals, and going into Friday’s game has hit 120-of-128 free throws—a 93.8 percent clip for the season. Marosites has connected on 66-of-144 three’s for the current season while breaking the 2,000 point scoring mark for her career.

Len Dugger, Marosites head basketball coach, says that with Marosites being selected shows a couple of things rather quickly.

“Two things—number one is that hard work does pay off because Kayla has worked extremely hard, and I am a little biased because I think she is the best player in the state,” stated Dugger.

“Secondly, I think it says a lot about our program because without the support of the other kids, she wouldn’t be able to do some of the things she does. And she understands that foremost as much as anyone.”

Dugger went on to add that even though the Miss Basketball is an individual award, it speaks volumes of the Lady Cyclones as a whole.

“It’s such an honor for her, and I look at it as an honor for our team, our program,” said Dugger. “I think Kayla would be the first to tell you she wants all of them to share into that because even though it’s an individual honor, an honor like that is made possible by great teammates.”