Jennings passes Penny as Logan’s all-time leading scorer in girls hoops

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Logansport junior Whitney Jennings is pictured going up for a layup against Fort Wayne South on Saturday night at the Kokomo Regional. P-T photo | Annette Spear

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February 20, 2013

Jennings passes Penny as Logan’s all-time leading scorer in girls hoops

by Beau Wicker Pharos-Tribune Pharos-Tribune Wed Feb 20, 2013, 01:07 AM EST

Logansport’s girls basketball team has had a tremendous run of success over the last seven seasons.

It’s no coincidence that during that time Jasmine Penny and Whitney Jennings have both been a part of the program. Penny graduated in 2010, and Jennings followed in her footsteps the year after as a star player for the Berries.

Just a junior, Jennings has already passed Penny as Logan’s all-time leader scorer. Jennings passed Penny late in the Fort Wayne Snider game on Saturday at the Kokomo Regional.

Jennings has now scored 1,778 points entering her senior season. Penny scored 1,754 points at Logansport.

“I got to watch Jasmine play for four years growing up, so that was cool to see all that she accomplished here,” Jennings said. “And she’s having an outstanding career at DePaul now. So it’s cool to have my name beside hers.”

Not only is Jennings rapidly moving up the state scoring leaderboard, she’s making an even an faster move up the assists leaderboard. She has 498 career assists, which already ranks her 10th all time in state history according to HickoryHusker.com. Terre Haute South’s Cara Stuckey is the all-time assists leader with 703, so Jennings is 206 assists away from passing her. Jennings had 211 assists this season.

What makes it even more impressive is Jennings plays in Indiana’s largest class, Class 4A, and goes up against Class 4A opponents on most nights.

Add it all up, Jennings is on pace to be one of the greatest guards in Indiana history.

“There’s so many great players that have gone through Indiana, so I don’t really think much about that or consider myself one of those,” Jennings said.

Jennings scored 532 points her freshman year, 609 points as a sophomore and 637 points as a junior.

“My freshman year I came in here and Jasmine just left and that senior class just left, and so I was kind of just given the ball and was told to run with it,” Jennings said. “They needed scoring and they needed someone to step up, so I had to take that role. It would have been awesome if I would have played with Jasmine for a year, but my numbers wouldn’t have been as high. It’s just one of those things where I had to come in and take that role.”

Penny scored 358 points as a freshman, 365 points as a sophomore, 467 points as a junior and 564 points as a senior.

“I fault myself because when Jasmine was a sophomore I never talked to her about how many points we needed her to score,” Logan coach Jerry Hoover said. “As a freshman she averaged 15 and as a junior she averaged 16. When she was a junior I got on her and said you need to get 20, and she got 20. When she was a senior I got on her and said you need to get 25, and she got 25. I wonder if I would have told her we needed her to get 35, she might have.”

The two Logan stars are much different players. Jennings, an Iowa recruit, is a 5-foot-5 scoring point guard with elite quickness and expert skills. Penny was a 6-foot-1 silky-smooth post player that could dominate the paint and also do damage from the outside.

“They’ll both be Indiana All-Stars,” Hoover said. “Jasmine’s in the top 10 nationally in field-goal percentage [at DePaul]. She’s having a heck of a year.

“Logansport’s lucky to have both of them.”