Washington's Jones, Reynolds finish 2-3 in Miss Basketball voting
Washington girls basketball coach Steve Reynolds truly believed that he had the two best seniors in the state on his stellar squad this season.
Unfortunately, the rest of the state did not agree with him.
Washington senior guards Rashunda Jones and Amiyah Reynolds, the co-captains and heart and soul of the Panthers, finished 2-3 respectively in the race for 2023 IndyStar Miss Basketball honors in the Hoosier State.
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Zionsville High School senior Laila Hull was named the Indy Star Miss Basketball recipient Monday afternoon. The 6-1 guard/forward, who will play at North Carolina, received 70 votes from media and coaches statewide. Jones was runner-up with 46 votes, while Amiyah Reynolds received 30. Karsyn Norman of Class 4A state champion Bedford North-Lawrence was fourth and Amber Tretter of two-time Class 2A state champion Forest Park fifth in the final vote totals with 12 and 10 votes respectively. A total of 19 players statewide received at least one Miss Basketball vote.
"I'm disappointed," said coach Reynolds in a phone interview Monday afternoon after the voting was made public. "It's a tough pill to swallow. I've said it over and over that I did not care who won it, but I thought for sure that it would be Rashunda or Amiyah.
"Hull had a great year and take nothing away from her. But I believe the body of work and the senior seasons that Rashunda and Amiyah had made them the top two players in the state. We're competitive and we wanted one of them to win it."
"I thought that they (Rashunda and Amiyah) were the favorites going into the season. They are different players, but better with each other. They supported each other all the way through this. I just don't know what more they could have done."
Hull, who last week was named the recipient of the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state, averaged 22.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game for her 20-3 team. She also averaged 2.4 steals, 2.1 assists and 1.3 blocked shots per contest and finished her prep career with a program best 1,668 points. Hull shot 52 percent from the field, including 42 percent on 3-pointers (27-of-64) and 82 percent at the free throw line. Zionsville, ranked No. 5 in the final Class 4A poll, lost 46-42 to No. 4 Hamilton Southeastern in the semifinals of the loaded Noblesville Sectional. No. 3 Fishers beat HSE in the sectional title game and ended up as state runner-up to BNL.
Hull finished her high school career with a school record 125 blocked shots and 754 rebounds, second in program history. She also had 196 assists and 227 steals while leading Zionsville to a 57-33 record. She is the sixth Indiana All-Star, including fourth on the girls' side, from Zionsville.
Jones, a Purdue recruit, and Reynolds, a Maryland signee, led the Class 4A No. 1 Panthers to a 27-1 mark. Washington won the Northern Indiana Conference title for the second straight year at 11-0. The Panthers, who won the Class 3A state title in 2022, lost to No. 11 Lake Central 62-57 in the North Semistate semifinal last month.
Jones, an electric 5-6 performer, earned her fourth straight All-NIC selection this season. She averaged a team-high 19.8 points per game to go with 3.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 4.3 steals. Jones shot 57 percent overall from the field including a team best 45 percent on 3-pointers (50-112) and 63 percent from the free throw line.
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Jones, who was named to the Indiana Supreme 15 All-State Team, finished her prep career third in program history with 1,791 points. She was also fourth in career assists with 430. The durable and consistent Jones, who like Reynolds as a Core Junior All-Star in 2022, did not miss a single game during her prep career despite playing with an injured knee during part of her junior season.
"I was shocked," said Jones of when she found out Monday that neither she or Amiyah Reynolds were Miss Basketball. "We went to state twice, won it once, and had an undefeated regular season this year. I thought that with the careers we had that we had it, but I guess not."
Jones said in a phone interview Monday afternoon that she had talked to Amiyah since the announcement was made.
"I think both of us are shocked about it," Jones said. "We did not care which one of us got it, but we thought that one of us would. I guess because our team was so good that we did not average 30 points per game that's why we did not get it."
"Winning Miss Basketball was really important to me, but we still won a state title. That's what I will remember about my career at Washington."
Reynolds, a 6-0 pure point guard, played in 19 games. The All-NIC first-teamer suffered a foot injury in the final game of the regular season and missed all five of Washington's postseason games. Reynolds continues to recover from surgery on her foot February 10.
Reynolds, who was also named to the Supreme 15 All-State Team, averaged 15.2 points to go with 8.1 rebounds. She ranked among the state's best at 6.3 assists per game and also added 3.3 steals per contest while shooting 51 percent from the field and 76 percent from the free throw line.
Reynolds finished her Washington career second in assists with 564 and first in assists per game at 5.8. She was also eighth in program history with 1,122 career points. Reynolds joined 2009 Miss Basketball Skylar Diggins as the only two players in program history with 1,000 points and 500 assists at Washington.
Coach Reynolds, now 146-82 in his nine seasons, was to the point about the whole process to determine awards like this one.
"I heard some things coming out of this process that were not encouraging," Reynolds said. "But I just have one vote in this. I kind of expected this due to the hoopla around it. It hurts the kids.
"With everything I've heard or seen and looking at history when it comes to this, along with the NIC voting, our team and players at Washington are held to a different standard for some reason. I'm still kind of speechless about the whole thing."
Jones, nicknamed "Spider'', and Reynolds, whose moniker was the "Captain", helped Washington lead the state in scoring at 76.6 ppg. and an average margin of victory at 38.7 ppg. The Panthers, who were ranked No. 10 nationally in the final ESPN poll, went 96-18 in their four-year careers, which also included a Class 3A state runner-up finish in 2021. The dynamic duo led Washington to 29 straight wins in the NIC.
Jones and Reynolds were attempting to join former Notre Dame and current WNBA star Diggins-Smith as the second Miss Basketball winners from the Pride of the West Side. Mila Reynolds, Amiyah's older sister and currently a freshman at Maryland, finished third in the Miss Basketball voting in 2022. Jackie Batteast, who also went on to star at Notre Dame, was third in the voting for the Panthers in 2001.
The Indiana All-Stars, coached by Penn's Kristi Ulrich, will play Kentucky in the annual two-game series June 9-10. The June 9 game will be in Owensboro, Ky. with the June 10 game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Washington seniors Rashunda Jones and Amiyah Reynolds second and third for Miss Basketball
