Guard Sophia Jones averaged 25 points per game in her senior year at Cypress Bay High School, helping lead her team to the Florida high school playoffs.
Mark Jones anxiously paced back-and-forth in his Indianapolis hotel room on Feb. 6.
The NBA commentator for ESPN was watching a high school basketball game with far higher personal stakes than the professional games he calls on television.
He was watching Florida’s division 7A District 13 girls’ basketball championship via FaceTime on his iPhone. His wife videocalled him from Weston, Florida, where their daughter and San Jose State commit, Sophia Jones, held the ball with under 20 seconds left in a tied game.
With 10 seconds remaining, she called the play “horns” from near midcourt. It was her go-to play in high school, where two teammates set screens on both sides of her defender.
She faked left and went right. Her defender managed to break through the screen and cut her off on her way to the wing, so she went back to the middle of the court with just five seconds to play.
The four-year varsity starter was at the top of the key.
With a pair of defenders in her face, she pulled the trigger on a pull-up 3-pointer.
There was zero hesitation and no thoughts of passing. She was going to win that game for Cypress Bay
High School.
“I was going to take that shot myself,” Sophia Jones said.
Her father watched her take the potential championship-winning buzzer-beating shot, but suddenly the ball froze in midair.
“She lets [the ball] go, and the damn screen buffers,” Mark Jones said.
Over 1,000 miles away, in the biggest game of his daughter’s life, his phone stopped working. Those few seconds felt like an eternity for him.
“It’s like ‘one Mississippi, two Mississippi,’ and I’m cursing and I’m getting mad,” he said. “And it finally comes back to live-action, and I see everybody mobbing Sophia and the game’s over.”
She had nailed the shot.
It wrapped up a 43 – 40 championship game that the SJSU commit took over with 28 points and 4 assists.
Even with the high tension and stakes, Mark Jones knew that ball was going in.
“It was something that I’ve seen her work on a million times,” he said. “That’s one thing she’s really gotten much better at this year, is making sure she’s got a final say in the final shot at the end of the game or end of the quarter.”
She led the Lightning to the Regional Semifinals of the Florida Class 7A State Tournament.
According to MaxPreps, she averaged 25 points per game on her way to becoming the state’s 7A Player of the Year. In the two games after her buzzer-beater, she put together performances of 39 and 30 points.
“I really enjoy being able to just play off of my teammates,” Sophia Jones said. “I love being able to set them up for shots . . . Just to play fast and get a lot of steals and fastbreaks. Just exciting basketball.”
Regarding her basketball influences, she lists three players: Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry in the NBA and Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi in the WNBA. Paul for his technical greatness and passing ability, Curry for his “loose” and fun style of play, and Taurasi for her “ferocity.”
Before starting his 20-plus year NBA broadcasting career, her dad played some college hoops at York University in Toronto.
Sophia Jones has two siblings involved in college basketball. Her brother formerly playing at Jacksonville University and her sister is currently at Loyola Marymount University.
Growing up, she and her siblings had a unique opportunity. With their father so entrenched in the NBA, they’ve recieved advice from people most young basketball players never get the chance to meet.
A couple of years ago, Sophia Jones was in the midst of a shooting slump. Her father was in Houston to call a game between the Warriors and Houston Rockets. During his morning workout in at the hotel gym, he ran into when he ran into Curry.
“I told him, ‘My daughter’s your biggest fan in Miami, maybe South Florida, maybe even the entire country,’ ” Mark Jones said. “He said ‘Well, roll the camera.’ ”
“He did a nice 20-second ‘Hey Sophia this is Steph. When you take the court tomorrow, I just want you to play confident. Walk out there like you’re the best player on the floor. Make sure you shoot it and
never stop.’ ”
“I think that made an impact,” Mark Jones said.
She still has the video on her phone and now, she’s joining her idol in the Bay Area.
She verbally committed to SJSU women’s basketball in July 2019, where she will major in radio-television-film in hopes of broadcasting basketball games like her father.
The Spartans improved this season, but at the time, the women’s basketball team had just come off of a 6-24 season. But Jones saw the potential in the squad despite the poor record.
Spartans head coach Jamie Craighead made sure she knew that the Spartans were about to get a game-changing player. Then-freshman guard Ayzhiana Basallo was sitting out because of transfer rules. She was going to make a “big difference” and Sophia Jones would benefit from learning from her.
Basallo, the 2019 Mountain West Newcomer of the Year, and Sophia Jones have a similar skill set.
Both play fast and are dynamic scorers. They can shoot from range, score from the paint and create shots for others.
Craighead thinks that Basallo, who will be a junior next season, will be a great influence on Jones.
“I love watching [Basallo],” Sophia Jones said. “Whenever we try to pull [the games] up on the computer, my dad’s just like ‘See how she does that? That’s what you need to do.’ ”
SJSU is positioned for another big season in 2020-21, Sophia Jones’ freshman year. It lost just
one starter after its 19-12 campaign. Jones took a chance on the program and now she is ready to contribute to it herself.
“I had faith and I’m glad I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.