No backing down in rise to the rafters
shouting that greatness was within her reach, because Walker-Kimbrough didn’t always believe it herself.
But even as chaos sometimes reigned around them, the pair maintained a relentless ascent. WalkerKimbrough became the greatest sharpshooter in the history of the program, Jones the surest two points in the women’s college game.
“They’re both extremely competitive, Shatori outwardly and Bri inwardly,” Frese said of her senior stars. “You see that consistency in the way they prepare — the first to arrive for workouts and the last to leave.”
Jones and Walker-Kimbrough have led such dogged, head-down lives that they seem almost befuddled by how high they’ve climbed now that they’re down to a handful of college games.
“I’m pretty sure we’re more excited than they are,” freshman Kaila Charles said of the impending jersey ceremony.
As they sat together at the arena on a recent afternoon, Jones asked Walker-Kimbrough whether she’d begun composing her Senior Day remarks. Walker-Kimbrough raised an eyebrow and gave her friend a thumbs down.
“It still hasn’t hit me,” she said. “People ask me how it felt to hear that my jersey would be in the rafters. But it probably won’t hit me until I actually see it up there or it’s actually over.”
Said Jones: “I think the games winding down, that part is hitting me. But the part about the rafters, I think that like Shatori, when I see it, that’s when it will sink in.”
Jones and Walker-Kimbrough, who first met when they visited College Park as high school juniors, have seen just about everything in their four years. As freshmen, they played with perhaps the greatest player in program history, Alyssa Thomas. As sophomores, they joined with classmate Lexie Brown to lead the Terps to a second straight Final Four. The trio seemed poised for another two runs, but Brown abruptly transferred to Duke and the Terps lost a second-round stunner to Washington in last year’s NCAA tournament.
Jones and Walker-Kimbrough are now down to their last shot. They’re clear leaders on and off the court for a team stocked with talented freshmen and sophomores. And the Terps are again positioned to snare a high seed for the tournament.
“They’ve seen a lot of change,” Frese said. “And to watch how they’ve adapted to it has been remarkable.”