Daniels’ Role Steadily Expands

SPRINGDALE - Ja’Vonda Daniels has made it a gameday habit to walk around Springdale High with music blaring from her green Beats By Dre headphones to get her teammates fi red up.

The routine has stayed the same all season. But Daniels’ play has gotten progressively better.

The junior guard has stepped up against 7A/6AWest Conference competition, averaging 13.3 points per game, including a nonconference win over league foe Fayetteville. Those numbers are all up compared to the 9.2 points she averaged the first 10 games of the season.

Her increased production, all while playing through an ankle injury, has been key for a Springdale team relying heavily on underclassmen. Daniels is the only non-sophomore among the Lady Bulldogs’ five leading scorers, making her an experienced veteran in comparison to most of her teammates.

She can already tell a difference in her game early in conference play after having been through the battles as a sophomore and going through a tough nonconference schedule this year.

“It helps,” Daniels said.

“Every team in our preseason was a challenge. We didn’t have any games we could walk in and say, ‘We got this.’”

Daniels’ on-court varsity experience and leadership is something Lady Bulldogs’ coach Heather Hunsucker has been looking for, especially as the clock winds down in close games.

“I told her after the (Rogers loss) that, ‘We need you to be the one that looks like they have the most experience. Assert yourself,’” Hunsucker said. “And I thought she did that (in a Tuesday win against Rogers Heritage).

Ja’Vondadoing that helps building consistency throughout the team.”

Daniels has added to her game this season after averaging 6.4 points per game as a sophomore, which was second on the team. She was often relegated to being a spot-up shooter last year, evidenced by her team-best 36 3-pointers making up more than half of her 67 fi eld goals.

“I was down there getting ready to catch and shoot,” Daniels said. “Come off a screen and catch and shoot.”

So Hunsucker stressed that Daniels needed to improve her ballhandling in the offseason. There appeared tobe a good chance Springdale would need her to play point guard this season at the time.

So Daniels worked on her handle diligently. And while Fayetteville transfer Kierra Lang has handled the majority of the point guard duties this year, Daniels’ hard work has allowed her to become a more well-rounded threat on off ense.

She has still hit a team-high 26 3-pointers this year. But she has also shown the ability to score off the dribble, while she even ran the team when Lang went down with a knee injury in December.

“This is the Ja’Vonda that I envisioned,” Hunsucker said. “And I only see her continuing to get better. I just have a real confidence with her. Now, not only can she spot up and shoot it. She can take people off the dribble. She’s got her one-or two-dribble jumper. I feel a lot more comfortable with the ball in her hands.”

Springdale (7-6, 1-1) has shown flashes of potential this season.

Daniels had a feeling the Lady Bulldogs would be a different team after playing with many of her new teammates on a traveling summer team that won multiple tournaments. The only question was whether the sophomores would fit with the returning players. So far, they have.