Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Good As Goldman
LINCOLN SENIOR FINISHES STRONG
SPORTS EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series of stories documenting the impact of the Goldman family on Lincoln High School basketball.
LINCOLN — On a Wednesday night in between state tournament games played 400 miles across the nearly the entire east-west span of Arkansas the Goldmans phone rang at Evansville.
On the line was John Brown University head women’s basketball coach Jeff Soderquist offering a fullride scholarship to youngest daughter, Jessica Goldman, a Lincoln senior.
Lincoln had just won its first-ever state tournament game in girls basketball on Tuesday, Feb. 26 squeaking by 2018 4A state champion, Central Arkansas Christian, 48-47 in overtime — thanks to an improbable comeback. The Lady Wolves, led by Jessica Goldman pulled off a 12-3 run in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter.
Carrying Her Team
Jessica’s 30 points carried the day for Lincoln posturing the Lady Wolves to knock off a CAC team coming off a 17-game win streak and a 14-game postseason win streak. At the end of regulation and in overtime her teammates chipped in crucial buckets. Center Robin Kirk put in a miss to cap the run with 2.3 seconds to go in regulation sending the contest into overtime. In the bonus session Kirk gave Lincoln a 45-44 lead then heroically saved the ball back in to Kyli Jenkins, who knocked down a 25-footer giving Lincoln a 48-44 lead.
But it was Jessica, who put the Lady Wolves on her back, making 6-of-11 long-range shots from 3-point distance, displaying deadly marksmanship the family is known for.
Overcoming Adversity
It was not her best night. She missed several layups — enough that had her dad, Gregg Goldman, thinking she could have scored a careerhigh 44 points had all of those blown bunnies gone down. Jessica was merely mortal on her 2-point field goal shooting, 4-of-12; and uncharacteristically off-target at the free throw line connecting on 4-of-10.
“It was really frustrating cause I’d missed a lot of layups, I missed a lot of free throws and so I just kept thinking ‘if you lose this is going to be on me.’ That’s what I was thinking so I was just trying to make sure we weren’t going to lose. So I just kept attacking, making good passes, and then Robin (Kirk) made the last shot to go into overtime and then I was just so happy. I guess the rest is history,” Jessica Goldman said. “We won and it just felt good and I felt like the overtime wasn’t really on me cause I think Kyli was the one who hit the 3-pointer and Robin was the one who hit the two that put us up. So really overtime was them, not as much as me.”
Basketball Scholarship
Yet, this basketball princess born into a family that placed a basketball in each hand as soon as she was able to grasp them, made an impression reaching far beyond the Osceola Fieldhouse 344 miles from Evansville.
Soderquist’s season ended the same night as Lincoln’s big win.
The Golden Eagles’ venture into the Sooner Athletic tournament concluded with a 70-49 loss to Science & Arts at Chickasha, Okla. for a third consecutive season. Soderquist, who was on hand to watch Jessica play during a semifinal win over West Fork during the District 3A-1 West tournament, wasted no time looking to fill a roster spot.
According to Jessica’s father, Greg Goldman, the scholarship represented $12,000 in academic money and $25,000 in athletic funding.
“Jessica committed and will be a Golden Eagle next year,” Greg Goldman said. “Her basketball days are just beginning!”
Statistical Value
The trip to state brought a degree of satisfaction for Greg and Alicia Goldman, an accountant who delights in keeping statistics when her children excel on the basketball court.
“She has always loved keeping stats of our teams,” Greg Goldman said.
In the Goldman household keeping statistics fulfills an very important role, as the family continually seeks maximum achievement on the hardwood.
“I have always believed statistics show you what is going on,” Greg Goldman said. “What you can do to improve your game. I’m a huge believer in stats.”
Improved Performance
Jessica’s numbers illustrate much better performance as a senior.
In 2016-2017, her sophomore season, Jessica scored 197 points, averaging 7 points and 4 rebounds-per-game while shooting 37 percent from the field and 66 percent at the foul line.
During 2017-2018, her junior year, she upped her point total to 319 and scoring average to 11 with 4 reboundsper-game again shooting 37 percent from the floor and 67 percent at the free throw line.
As a senior for 2018-2019, Jessica scored 527 points, averaging 15.5 points and 5 rebounds-per-contest. Her field goal percentage improved to 44 and she was better at the foul line shooting 71 percent.
“We’re very proud of her and the team! She has shown a ton of improvement over the last three years,” Greg Goldman said. “She has a very high ceiling. I don’t think she’s even close yet to how good she can be.”
Icing On Cake
Reaching the state tournament in her senior season proved icing on the cake for Jessica as her father notes. Her 1,000th career point occurred against CAC.
“All three of our kids have made the state tournament!!! ‘Biggie’ and RaShelle twice, Jessie once. All three are also in the 1,000-point club,” Greg Goldman said. “Basketball has been good to us. All three playing at different levels of college basketball: RaShelle, D-3; ‘Biggie,’ D-1, JUCO, then back to D-1; and now Jessica, NAIA.”
Jessica cherishes memories from her playing days at Lincoln with the state tournament win at the top of the list.
“Beating CAC. That’s a really good memory. I think I’m going to hold onto that for a long time. The overtime win and everything,” Jessica Goldman said. “My teammates, all of my teammates, we worked so hard since June and they knew that us seniors wanted to go to state so the underclassmen worked so hard for us to meet that goal, and the coaches, they pushed us really hard since June, too.”