5-4 Jenkins playing big for Stevens
Senior guard among the state’s deadliest 3-point shooters
Wearing an oversized jersey, Destiny Jenkins stood all of 5 feet 2 inches when she stepped onto the court at Paul Taylor Field House for her first varsity basketball game three years ago.
Jenkins was the smallest player on the court when Stevens opened the 2015-16 season. But the task wasn’t too tall. Jenkins scored 26 points and made six 3-pointers in the Falcons’ 53-42 loss.
“I was nervous,” said Jenkins, now a senior. “There was a lot of pressure because my dad did coach here. I was smaller, and I know a lot of people would say, ‘She shouldn’t be on varsity. She’s probably on varsity because of her dad.’ I knew I had to prove a point.”
Jenkins averaged 16.4 points, 3.7 assists and 3.1 steals as a freshman and was the ExpressNews Newcomer of the Year.
She then earned spots on the Express-News Super Team as a sophomore and junior and has recorded 2,083 career points, 19th-most in city history.
Jenkins’ success comes from a polished game she has shown since that varsity debut. She credits that to her father, Alfonzo Jenkins, an assistant coach at
Stevens for his daughter’s first two seasons there.
“It was training and repetition all the time,” Destiny said. “It was the same drills over and over again.”
Alfonzo said he had no doubts about her ability to play varsity basketball right away.
“I put her through it,” said Alfonzo, who coached at Stevens for nine years. “I showed her how tough she needed to get. I wasn’t surprised. She was already there.”
It’s been a transition year for Jenkins and the Stevens program since Kathleen Moroney took over as coach from Annissa Hastings, who is now at Wagner. Moroney was an assistant at Frisco Heritage for three years before landing her first head coaching job this season.
Moroney inherited an inexperienced team, one that was going to be without injured 5-10 sophomore forward Semaj Adams, last season’s E-N Newcomer of the Year. Adams was poised to build off a season in which she averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and four steals before she suffered a knee injury.
Seniors Jade Mitchell (6.3 points) and Ayana Parham (5.7 points) have filled in some of the scoring gaps with Adams out of the lineup. But it didn’t take long for Moroney to spot her leader.
“I could tell the girls looked to her,” Moroney said of Jenkins. “There was no question about that. When they aren’t sure what they are doing, they look to her to figure out what to do next.”
Moroney said Jenkins’ skill level has allowed her to focus on the team’s less-experienced players.
“She’s low-maintenance and easy to coach,” Moroney said. “Easy to be around, and that has been a huge blessing. It’s the complete opposite of that nightmare, leading scorer, dominant player. I spend the least amount of time on her, which I hate. But I feel the best thing I can do is build up the people around her and teach them and help them grow so they can be a better supporting cast for her.”
Moroney’s approach has the Falcons battling for a playoff spot. Stevens (15-10 overall) is tied with Brennan for fourth place in the district standings at 8-4. Clark leads at 11-1, while Brandeis and O’Connor are tied for second at 10-2.
Jenkins is the area’s leading Class 6A scorer (18.3 ppg), and through Saturday’s games was 10th in the state with 71 3-pointers, according to MaxPreps. She’s made 310 in her career.
Although Jenkins still only stands 5-4, she is the team’s leading rebounder (5.9) and also leads in assists (3.1) and steals (4.2).
“She’s the motor behind the offense,” Moroney said. “Her team knows that, and everybody in the gym knows that.”
That was on display when the Falcons beat Brandeis 61-58 in overtime on Jan. 5.
Brandeis made a free throw to go up by three points with seven seconds left. Moroney’s instinct was to call a timeout and set up a play, but she let Jenkins bring up the ball instead. Jenkins sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. The Falcons then outscored the Broncos 11-8 for a win that could prove pivotal to their playoff hopes.
“I just stood there and watched,” Moroney said. “What more can you do? Our best bet was to inbound the ball to her and let her do it. She is like having another coach on the floor. Maybe you’d have a coach call timeout and draw something up, but there she was, the ball on the floor and it was in her hands. That made my job as a coach easier at that moment.”