Sweet Senior night success for Lady Patriots
BJ seniors Lindsey Jennings, Karly Flores and Chelsea Smith photo by Lindsay Vaught
The Bob Jones girl’s basketball team put the finishing touches on the regular season Monday night with a 63-19 win over Grissom. The Lady Patriots finish with an 11-1 home record and 27-4 overall. Sixth ranked Bob Jones will open the area tournament against Buckhorn Thursday night at 7:30. Sparkman won Area 15 and will host the tournament.
The points came in bunches for Bob Jones. Senior Chelsea Smith hit a three pointer to go up 11-3. Lindsey Jennings, another senior, scored on an offensive rebound to make it 21-7. Bob Jones led 33-13 at the half. A 20-2 run in the third quarter blew the game open and a continuous clock ran throughout the forth quarter.
The real story for the players and Coach Danny Petty was the team’s success this season after graduating five starters from last years team that reached the 6A championship game.
“I’m pleasantly surprised because going in I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Petty said. “I didn’t have an offseason with them but we had a great start and the girls played hard. We’ve got some good girls. They are fun to be around. They keep me laughing all the time.”
“They’ve been working hard. That is all I ask is work hard and try your best.”
Petty has experimented with several different lineups this season but the steadying force behind the team’s success has been senior point guard Lindsey Jennings.
Jennings again led the team in scoring against Grissom with 13 points.
“I’m excited and sad at the same time it being the last time I play at Bob Jones but I’m excited because I get to move on to play at the next level,” said Jennings who has offers but has not announced where she will play basketball in college.
The two other seniors also got on the board. Chelsea Smith and Karley Flores both got honorary starts and finished with 6 and 4 points respectively. Sydney Booker and Chandler Elder scored 11 points each.
The game marks the end of a grand era in girl’s basketball at Bob Jones.
Lindsey Jennings is the last link to the Bob Jones 6A state championship team of 2010-2011. Jennings was a sophomore on that team that defeated favored Hoover. The coach of that team, Tim Miller left after last season to take a coaching job at Alabama.
“Winning state would definitely be the highlight of my years here,”Jennings said. “I had a lot of good friends on that team. We all just got along great. I’ve got my championship ring and I’ll always have memories of them and all the fun times with Coach Miller.”
Jennings will be leading the team and is confident of another deep run in the playoffs this season.
“It would be great if we could come back with another championship,” Jennings said.
“Hopefully we will play our best ball down the stretch,” Petty said.
