Hometown Heroines: Part Three
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By Amari Dryden
Some players can’t wait to leave home to go to college. Others can’t wait to rep their city across their chest and be the hometown heroine they aspired to be when they first picked up a basketball. There are over 100 players in Division I who play for their hometown team. In this series, we’ve narrowed the list down to players who are ranked within the top 10% nationally or in their conference in at least three different statistics and who whose hometowns are within a five-mile radius of their college. We’ll tell you about a handful of players each week through the end of the regular season. Here’s the third installment.
Ryan Holder, Guard, Senior
School: Towson
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Ryan Holder went to Roland Park Country School, just three miles from Towson’s campus. She started her collegiate career during the 2016-17 season at UMass, starting in 25 out of 30 games and averaging 9.8 points per game. She then transferred to Harford Community College in Bel Air, MD, where she led the Fighting Owls to a fifth consecutive regional championship and was named Region 20 Conference Player of the Year.
Holder helped lead Towson to a phenomenal last season as they had their first winning season since 2011-12, won the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. Holder only had four points in the CAA championship, but four points was the margin of victory so her points were definitely needed.
She’s ranked 101st in the nation in blocks per game (1.5). She’s the eighth-highest guard on that list and the shortest, standing at 5-foot-8. She’s ranked second in the CAA in total blocks (21), seventh-ranked block rate (5.8%) and eighth in field goal percentage (50.7%). Her teammate Nukiya Mayo, a 6-foot-3 forward, also averages 1.5 blocks per game. Combined Mayo and Holder have had 67 blocks, which is why Towson is ranked 17th nationally in blocks per game (5.2) and 21st in block rate (12.3%).
Jen Gast, Forward, Junior
School: University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC)
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Like Ryan Holder, Jen Gast is also a Baltimore, MD native and went to high school just two miles from the UMBC Event Center, where she plays now. Her sophomore season was cut short due to injury after playing only nine games. In her freshman year she played in 24 games, starting four.
Gast is ranked 16th nationally in total rebound rate (21.4%), 30th in defensive rebound rate (26.6%) and 66th in offensive rebound rate (14.7%). She’s in at least the 90th percentile in offensive, defensive and total rebounds per game as well as in those rebounding totals. In the America East Conference, she’s ranked ninth in total blocks (9). She had the first double-double of her college career in a 15-point, 18-rebound performance against La Salle on November 30th. She’s had four other double-digit rebounding performances: 10 against Morgan State on December 15th, 13 against Hartford on January 22nd, 10 against UMass-Lowell on February 8th and 12 against New Hampshire on February 15th.
Ashley Jones, Guard, Redshirt Sophomore
School: Temple
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Ashley Jones went to Neumann-Goretti Catholic High School, a four-mile straight shot down Broad Street from Temple University. She transferred from West Virginia after the 2017-18 season and sat out the following season due to NCAA transfer rules. At WVU, Jones played more of a supporting role, as her highest-ranking statistic, team-wise,was 2.6 assists per game, ranking her second. At Temple, she has a greater impact on the floor, ranking first for the Owls in three statistics (free throw percentage, usage rate and assist rate) and second in nine different statistics (field goals made, field goal percentage, two-pointers made, two-point percentage, three-pointers made, free throws made, assists per game, total points and effective field goal percentage).
In American Athletic Conference (AAC) conference play, Jones is ranked second in usage rate (30.4%), third in assist rate (32.3%) and sixth in assists per game (4.1). Her ability to dish out assists is part of the reason why Temple is third in the AAC in assists per game (14.1). She has flirted with a triple-double this season twice: a 13-point, six-rebound and nine-assist performance against Duquesne and a 23-point, eight-rebound and eight-assist performance against Xavier.
Gazmyne Herndon, Guard, Senior
School: Memphis
Hometown: Memphis, TN
Gazmyne Herndon went to Douglass High School, just five miles north of Memphis’s campus and played her first two years of eligibility at Walters State Community College in Morristown, TN, 50 miles northeast of Knoxville. Her sophomore year, in the first game of the NCJAA National Tournament, she notched a triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists and finished her career ranked third all-time in assists at Walters State.
Herndon is the lone senior for the Tigers. She leads the team in assists per game (3.6) and free throw rate (23.9%) and is second in assist to turnover ratio (1.16). She has improved in almost every offensive statistic compared to last season. She’s increased her field goal percentage from 34.5% to 43.8%, her assist to turnover rate from 0.79 to 1.16 and she led the team in total assists last season with 88. She already has 89 assists this season, and there’s still four games left before conference tournament play starts. Her 27.8% assist rate in conference play ranks her eighth in the AAC. She had a career-high five steals on December 20th against Mississippi Valley State and a career-high nine assists against UConn on February 7th.
All stats are from Her Hoop Stats for games through February 17.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.