The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Jones hoping to catch on quickly
Maryland product fitting in with Sun
UNCASVILLE » The first time Alyssa Thomas threw a pass in Brionna Jones’ direction, the wide-eyed freshman hauled it in. The same thing with pass No. 2 and No. 3 and No. 4. It didn’t take long for her to realize Jones was going to be a good teammate.
Well, three years after they last teamed together at the University of Maryland, they will once again share the court when the Connecticut Sun plays host to Chicago in its preseason opener on Tuesday at approximately 7 p.m.
Thomas is going into her fourth season with the WNBA so there’s a pretty good idea what she is capable of doing. However, there will be plenty of eyes on Jones, the eighth overall pick in last month’s WNBA Draft.
“Bri is a really good player, young, raw talent, but one of the cool things about her is you can throw anything to her and she can catch it so definitely looking forward to continuing to play with her,” Thomas said.
The 6-foot-3 Jones led all Division I women’s players with a 69 percent field-goal percentage as a senior after topping the country in the same category as a junior as well, with most of her baskets coming within the shadow of the basket. Jones will earn her playing time with her ability to an effective player in the low post but she is also eager to show that there are more layers to her game than what people saw during her time at Maryland.
“My mid-range game, I have been working on that a lot,” Jones said. “I didn’t get a chance to work from the high post a lot in college so now the way the offense is running, I will be in the high post more to show what I can do from there.”
When Jones got to Maryland, she was still recovering from a torn ACL suffered during her se-
nior season and admitted she needed to get into better shape to thrive in the Terrapins’ up tempo offensive system. She estimates she lost between 40-50 pounds during her time at Maryland.
Jones’ scoring average improved each year, she went from being a 55 percent foul shooter as a freshman to making 77 percent as a senior. Most impressively, after having 2 ½ turnovers for every assist in her first three seasons, she had more assists than turnovers as a senior.
Her hard work wasn’t limited to the basketball court or in the conditioning program, she also graduated from college in three years, despite the long road trips and life as a Division I athlete.
“Coming into college I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to pursue, so that was kind of the easy part, just coming in, then working with Coach B (Brenda Frese) to get my schedule to fit with practice. So she was really great about that. I think I grew a lot in my four years in Maryland and trying to get better at something every year was important to me.”