Shippensburg University senior and Cedar Crest High School grad Ariel Jones earned her second straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division Women’s Basketball Athlete of the Week honor on Monday afternoon after the news was announced in an afternoon dispatch from the league office.

Click on the photo above for video highlights.

With Monday’s honor, Jones has now earned more weekly awards than any other player in SU Women’s Basketball history. It is the fifth time this season and the 16th time in her career that she has been named the PSAC Eastern Division Athlete of the Week. She also earned eight PSAC East Freshman of the Week awards during the 2017-18 season before the conference discontinued the Freshman of the Week award and replaced it with the Defensive Athlete of the Week award beginning in 2018-19.

This past week, Jones averaged 22.0 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, 3.0 assists per game and 4.0 steals per game as the Raiders won on the road at West Chester and won at home versus Mansfield to extend their win streak to five straight. SU now has a two-game lead atop the Eastern Division standings.

Jones was also a perfect 9-of-9 at the free-throw line to continue to add to her conference record for career made free throws.

In the road win Wednesday at West Chester, Jones led the Raiders with 28 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. She was 6-of-6 at the free-throw line, including 4-of-4 in the fourth quarter. In a decisive third quarter in which SU flipped an eight-point deficit into a lead by outscoring WCU 25-16, Jones scored eight points, including 2-2 from three-point range.

In the home win Saturday versus Mansfield, Jones led all scorers with 16 points, added seven rebounds, tied her career high with six steals, and added two assists.

Jones currently ranks third in the nation in scoring (22.5 PPG) and second in the nation with 92 made free throws. She is also Division II’s active career leader in points (2,349), scoring average (23.0), free throws made (743) and free throw attempts (914).

Shippensburg is off to one of the best starts in program history, all while one Raider closes in on conference history and everyone is counting down—or almost everyone.
“Don’t tell me about it. Definitely, don’t tell me about it,” said senior guard Ariel Jones while shaking her head. “I’ll have family ask, or people text me, ‘Hey, you’re close. How many away?’ I’m like, ‘I can tell you where to look for it if you want to look for it, but me personally, I’m not going to go and look.'”
The Cedar Crest grad sits 26 points away from becoming the PSAC’s all-time leading women’s basketball scorer. The only name in front of her is another Raider, Lauren Beckly, who posted 2,407 points in her time at Ship.
“Lauren Beckley is also a former player of mine. And after you coach a player like that, you feel like that’s a once-in-a-lifetime situation,” said Trn. “Then Ariel came in her freshman year and that season, after her freshman year, that certainly was the thought, that she could do what we thought couldn’t be done again.”

At times, Jones has made it look easy, stacking accolade after accolade, but after her junior year, just getting on the court would’ve been a welcomed sight. COVID canceled the 2020-2021 season, and two games into the following year, she would take a medical redshirt because of an ankle injury.
“It was really tough, sad, upsetting,” recalled Jones. “At the end of the day, I had to believe in God and believe there was a reason that I wasn’t playing and this is the reason. It was tough during that time but now looking back, I wouldn’t change it.”

The Lebanon County native knows that as long as she and her team continue to stay in the moment, the Raiders will achieve their goals and any other milestone may just come with it.

“We call it the microscope and the telescope,” said Trn. “The things in the telescope are what we’re striving towards, but the little things, daily, are what we have to focus on.”
“Just being in the moment is what I’m focusing on, because it can get taken away at any point, so I just want to play every game like it’s my last with my teammates.”
Shippensburg is at home on Saturday against Kutztown for a 1 p.m. tip-off.

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