Driven to succeed
Not even Walker-Kimbrough, however, has increased her production as inexorably as Jones.
The 6-foot-3 center grew up in Havre de Grace at the heart of a basketball-mad family. Her father, Mike, is 6-7 and played at the University of Hartford. Her mother, Sanciarhea, is 6-0 and played volleyball at East Texas State. Her older brother, Jarred, who plays at Loyola Maryland, never failed to come at her hard as they fired baskets on the dirt and grass court in back of the Jones house.
Even then, Brionna played with a perpetual smile. Mike Jones chuckled, recounting a video he shot of her on her first team. The coach told Brionna and her teammates to keep their hands up on defense. So at first opportunity, she sprinted down the court, threw her arms straight in the air and flashed the biggest grin imaginable. “Very cute,” her father said. Jones’ steady visage masks a roaring internal fire. She was The Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro Player of the Year as a junior at Aberdeen High but missed most of her senior season after she tore the ACL in her right knee.
The injury, along with concerns about her weight, led scouts to underrate Jones compared with girls she outplayed on the summer circuit. The torn ACL also cost her chances to score 2,000 career points and lead Aberdeen to a second straight state title.
“It was a dark period,” her father said.
On the other hand, with basketball temporarily out of her life, Jones realized how deeply she cared about the sport. And she directed that pent-up energy into 7:30 a.m. weightlifting sessions and long runs through the summer heat.
“I just wanted to get back to being myself,” she said.
Walker-Kimbrough’s strongest early memories of Jones involve watching her run up and down, up and down the stairs at Xfinity Center. Not only did she need to strengthen her knee, but she also needed to get into shape to keep up with Frese’s fast-paced offense.
“She was in here for hours every day,” Walker-Kimbrough said, the respect obvious in her tone. “I was thinking my workouts were hard. But then I was back at the dorm getting rest, and she was still here. I don’t even know how she got through that.”
All that effort helped Jones become the player who is averaging 19.2 points, 10.6 rebounds and a nationbest 69-percent shooting from the field this season.
Jones is now a counselor to her younger sister, Stephanie, a Maryland freshman who’s, incredibly, coming back from a torn ACL.
The Jones of today bears only a mild resemblance to the soft-faced kid who came out of Harford County. She has chiseled herself into a post player who can’t be moved off her favorite spots near the basket. And her hands, always her secret weapon, snag the most suspect entry passes. Jones even led the team in steals until Walker-Kimbrough recently passed her.
“I love seeing those before-andafter pictures,” Frese said. “They show the pride she took in buying into what we asked of her in this program.”