From Jimmie Athletics
Barely into her second women’s basketball season for the University of Jamestown, Sarah Lenz (SO/Belle Plaine, MN)’s role with the Jimmies hasn’t been a secret from Day 1.
The 5-foot-7 sophomore reserve from Belle Plaine, Minnesota, is summoned to shoot the rock from downtown.
“Yeah, and, we’re OK with that,” grinned University of Jamestown women’s basketball coach Thad Sankey. “When you walk in off the bench and you’re expected to make a shot, maybe on the first possession or on your first touch, that’s a tough thing.
“She did an awesome job tonight.”
Lenz buried 7 of 11 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc on Saturday, scoring a career-high 21 points to help lead the Jimmies to a convincing 96-56 victory over the visiting Doane Tigers at Harold Newman Arena.
As a matter of fact, Lenz has yet to make a two-point field goal for the Jimmies.
The sharpshooter is 0-for-6 so far from inside the arc through 35 career games. She has, however, splashed home 69 of 191 career triples attempted — and counting — for the orange and black.
“Obviously, coach Thad and everyone had confidence in me, and I just kinda grew in that role,” Lenz said. “A lot of reps. Just be confident in your shot and when I get the chance … just do what I do.”
It was a solid shooting performance overall for Jamestown, which improved to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The Jimmies connected on 19 of 41 from downtown all told — with senior starting stalwarts Hannah DeMars (SR/Grand Rapids, MN) (19 points) and Kia Tower (SR/Bigfork, MN) (14 points) each knocking down four apiece from distance — and shot close to 50% overall (35 of 78).
It was quite the turnaround for a Jimmie offense that missed 21 3-pointers and shot less than 40% in Friday’s heartbreaking one-point loss at home to Hastings College.
“I thought we rushed our kick-out shots last night and rushed a lot of our 3-pointers and the two-point attempts that we had,” Sankey said. “That’s part of the beauty of (playing) a back-to-back is there’s not time to mope around.”
The Jimmies had jumped on the Tigers 47-29 by the half, with the help of three of Lenz’s seven triples. She’d knock down the other four in the third, as Jamestown went ahead 77-38 after three and never looked back.
A total of 12 Jimmies scored for the home team. DeMars said getting back out onto the court less than 24 hours after suffering the team’s lone conference loss was therapeutic.
“Today we just came in with an open mind,” DeMars explained. “We knew how yesterday happened. We’re going to have games like that — everyone has games like that — and it’s just how you respond is what matters.
“We responded really well.”
Sankey agreed.
“I was really happy with the approach our girls had, the confidence they had and the belief that they had in themselves.”
Jamestown has even more firepower yet to return at some point this season in sophomore guard Madelyn Schmidt (SO/Tappen, ND). Schmidt has buried 53 3-pointers in 31 career games for the Jimmies.
“We can’t wait to have Maddy back,” Sankey said. “She’s been advancing workouts a little bit more and we’ll probably know a little bit more in a couple weeks.”
UJ is set to host rival Valley City State University next Wednesday beginning at 6 p.m., a contest usually circled on the calendar by both teams.
“We’ll see,” DeMars smiled. “They’re gonna bring it, so we gotta bring it too.”