The Blinn College women’s basketball team has already made history this season.
Now the Buccaneers are looking to make some more.
Blinn (24-9) is set to begin play in the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament this week and will take on Casper College (28-5) in the first round of the 24-team competition.
When the 19th-seeded Buccaneers take the court against the 14th-seeded and 16th-ranked Thunderbirds at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 27, inside the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Wyo., it will mark a special occasion for both Blinn and head coach Jeff Jenkins.
For the first time in program history and in Jenkins’ 26 seasons as a head coach (22 with Blinn), the Bucs are in the national tournament for a third consecutive year. This will be the team’s sixth appearance overall and seventh for Jenkins.
Blinn will hope to pad its historic campaign with its first national championship.
“Our situation is night-and-day from the previous two seasons,” Jenkins said. “We went into the tournament in 2022 and 2023 with third-year sophomores and players with tons of experience, but this year we have two sophomores and tons of freshmen. It’s going to be a new experience for us for sure.”
The Bucs won a share of the Region XIV regular-season championship in both 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, but finished fourth in the standings this winter. Blinn also earned the Region XIV Tournament title two seasons ago before finishing as the runners-up last year. The Bucs punched their ticket to nationals this season with a second tournament championship in three seasons, ousting nationally-ranked and tournament-bound Trinity Valley Community College in the finals to secure an automatic bid.
Blinn’s style of play this season has seen a drastic shift from the squads that averaged 78.2 points per game during their previous two runs to nationals. Behind 14 freshmen and two sophomores, the Bucs have sometimes struggled to make shots and instead rely heavily on stingy defense.
The team is averaging 68.5 points per outing while surrendering just 59.
An offensive surge during the Region XIV Tournament may have signaled a change for Blinn, however, as the Bucs scored 77, 75, and 84 points, respectively, to secure the title.
(Pictured: Blinn sophomore Tianna Mathis dribbles the ball during a game against McLennan Community College on Nov. 1, 2023)
“We know who we are this season,” said sophomore guard Tianna Mathis, who was a member of Blinn’s previous two nationals teams. “We are going to have to defend and put together four quarters of positive basketball to win. We’ve struggled to score all season long – it’s not a secret – but I don’t think a lot of the teams in the tournament are prepared for the way we play defense, the level of conditioning we bring to the court, and our ability to run the floor. We also know how to make shots, and I think we’ve proven that, too.”
Blinn averages 10.3 steals, 15 forced turnovers, and 29 defensive rebounds per game.
The Bucs have just one player with a double-digit scoring average in freshman guard Chelsy Singleton (13.7), but come armed with an array of capable scorers who average between five and seven points per contest.
Freshman guard Jonesha Neal has tallied 7.3 points per game; freshman forward Tocarra Johnson and freshman guard Elizabeth Walton both check in at 6.8; freshman guard Wynter Jones scores at a 6.2 clip; Mathis owns a 6.1 scoring average; and freshman guards Ja’Nya Thomas and Nala Richardson own scoring averages of 6.1 and six, respectively.
On the flip side, Singleton also has a team-high 52 steals, Mathis has swiped 41 balls and 135 defensive rebounds, and Johnson adds an impressive 150 defensive boards. Neal has 40 steals and 95 defensive rebounds, while Thomas has added 39 steals. Freshman guard DJ Kincade and sophomore forward Jasmyn Jackson are just shy of the 100-defensive rebounds mark with 99 and 94, respectively.
“Defense wins games,” Singleton said. “We hold ourselves to a high standard on defense and believe that no matter who is on the other side of the court, if we defend it’s going to create opportunities for us on offense and that is what will push us forward. The other teams lace their shoes the same way we do, so we’re going to need to stay out of our own heads and stay composed if we want to get the job done.”
In reaching the national tournament, Casper posted an impressive 11-1 record in Region IX and went on to win its region tournament to earn an automatic berth. Aside from having the advantage of playing in their hometown this week, the Thunderbirds also possess a capable offense that averages 79 points per game and features three double-digit scorers.
Casper is also deadly from beyond the arc, with 10 or more made 3-pointers in each of its last four games.
(Pictured: Blinn sophomore Jasmyn Jackson shoots a jumper during a game against Paris Junior College on Jan. 13, 2024)
“We have to close out, get our hands up, and make them put the ball on the floor,” Jenkins said. “We can’t give them open looks because they’ll bury them. We have to do a good job of guarding the ball and prevent them from rotating and getting open shots.”
Jackson, who joins Mathis as the only returner from last season’s nationals team, said that although this year’s group has taken a different route to the season-ending tournament, she believes the Bucs are just as capable of finishing the year on top.
“It’s a mistake to underestimate a team at this level. Anybody in this tournament can win it all and everybody is beatable,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be important for us all to stay focused and remember that we have what it takes to win five games and take home the championship.”
All games in the national tournament will be broadcast through an NJCAA partnership with ESPN+. To watch the games, visit www.espn.com/espnplus. Play begins with a first-round tilt between 16th-seeded Cochise College and 17th-seeded Chattanooga State Community College at 10 a.m. (MT) on Tuesday, March 26.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 45 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
