STARKVILLE — Starkville High School sophomore center Kelsey Jones has always enjoyed scoring points.
Now Jones is drawing the same sense of satisfaction from rebounds, blocking out, and getting assists.
As Jones adds more dimensions to her game, the Lady Jackets are quickly becoming a complete team.
“This season has been a lot of fun because we are all learning together,” Jones said. “We have a lot of young players. When the season started, we didn’t really have any leaders, so we figured out we would have to all learn together if we were going to have a great year.”
So far, the learning has taken place at quick pace.
Jones scored 32 points and pulled down 20 rebounds in two games last week at the Travis Outlaw Slam Dunk at the Hump basketball tournament at Humphrey Coliseum.
For her efforts, Jones is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
“Kelsey is such a young person. She still has that sparkle in her eye when she gets something for the first time,” Starkville coach Kristie Williams said. “We really needed an inside presence and she has come through. You can see her getting a little better each day. However, this whole team is so young, so pretty much the team is getting better each day.”
Last season, Starkville finished 18-7 and lost in the opening round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A playoffs. Even though Jones received good minutes as a freshman, the team was predominantly guard-oriented.
The challenge this season was to replace that team’s two leading scorers, Blair Schaefer and Imane Montgomery.
“The first couple of practices were tough because we didn’t know who was going to be the leader,” Jones said. “We weren’t sure how we were going to score a lot of points. But it started clicking. Coach talks all the time about being an inside-out team. We are getting there. My job is to not only score points but also to make sure I get rebounds and do my job blocking out.
“Each day I am learning something new about the game. It has been a fun challenge.”
Williams has challenged her players in the team’s non-region schedule. Entering a showdown against New Hope on Saturday in the New Hope New Year Holiday tournament, Starkville is 10-3.
To the casual observer, losses to Jim Hill and Newton might be discouraging. However, Jones said her teammates have taken it in stride. Their goal is to play hard on every possession. As the team matures, the players believe they will see fewer of those types of games get away.
“We have played some really good teams, and that has made us better,” Jones said. “We just know we have to work on our defense and we have to work on free throws. We should have won two of the games we lost. We lost those games because we didn’t do everything right for four quarters.
“Coach always talks us playing hard and playing with effort. That is what we are trying to do.”
With the emergence of Jariyah Covington and Eryka Williams as outside scoring threats, Jones’ job has become easier.
“I think any coach would be happy with 10-3 at the end of the first half of the season,” William said. “We are excited about January and February because we have had stretches of playing really well. We will have even more of those in the months ahead, and that will be really good for this team.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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