Jan. 29, 2010

Jenna Plumley is making the most of her second chance.

The junior point guard for the Lamar women's basketball team is among the Division I leaders in 3-point field goals, assists and steals as the Lady Cardinals are off to their best start in 19 years.

Plumley is getting a second chance at basketball after leaving the University of Oklahoma following the 2007-08 season after violating team rules. Plumley started every game as a sophomore for the Sooners that season, helping lead Oklahoma to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

She transferred to Lamar and had to sit out the 2008-09 season because of NCAA transfer rules. After shaking off the rust in her first few games this season, Plumley has the Lady Cardinals in the hunt for a Southland Conference title and their first NCAA appearance since the 1990-91 season.

"It was tough to sit out, but it makes you grow as a player," Plumley said. "I want to be a coach, so it was good that I got to see a lot of things from a coach's perspective."

Plumley has become Lamar's leader on and off the court and steps up in the big games. Some of her best efforts this season have come against top-10 teams, scoring 22 points against eighth-ranked Baylor and 21 against 10th-ranked Texas A&M. Her career-high effort of 26 points came in a Southland Conference game at UT Arlington as she led the Lady Cards to a come-from-behind win as Lamar rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit.

"Jenna expects to win,"Lamar coach Larry Tidwell said. "The great ones make the players around them better. And Jenna is a great one."

With the improvements individually and as a team, theLady Cardinals go into every game believing they can win.

"Everybody has confidence and we believe in ourselves," Plumley said. "We're all starting to come together. We have to be all about each other."

Plumley's impact at Lamar was felt even before she ever played a game in a Lady Cardinals' uniform as she was selected as a second-team all-conference player by the Southland Conference coaches. They may have underestimated her.

Since the season started, she's been the Southland Conference Player of the Week twice and is the only conference player to be in the top 30 nationally in three categories.

"Sometimes, I'm thought of as a scoring threat, but I'd rather get the assist or make the big play defensively," Plumley said. "But I'll do whatever I have to for us to win."

Plumley knows that success doesn't come easily, and has shown the willingness to work for it. A trait that hasn't gone unnoticed by her teammates or coaches.

"Jenna displays a real passion for the game that I haven't seen too often in my 34 years of coaching," Tidwell said. "She prepares herself for practice the same way she prepares for a game."

Plumley feels she was quickly accepted by her teammates and the Lamar community.

"Everyone from the players to Coach Tidwell to (Athletics Director) Billy Tubbs has been so nice to me," she said. "I really enjoy being here and I appreciate what everyone has done."

The toughest part for Plumley? Being away from home.

"I'm farther away from my family than I've ever been. And family is important to me," she said. "But they try to get to as many games as possible. And I know they're there for me."

And now she has an extended family, the one at Lamar.