PHOTO COURTESY OF SHIPPENSBURG UNIVERSITY

 Relatively speaking, Ariel Jones was a late bloomer. But once the Cedar Crest graduate came into her own, she hasn’t stopped blossoming.

 Jones, a 5-7 combo guard on Shippensburg University’s Division Two women’s basketball squad, was recently named to the D2CCA All-Atlantic Region and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference first teams for her record-breaking sophomore season. This year, Jones set the Shippensburg record for points in a season with 690 total points, led the PSAC in scoring and ranked fourth nationally among Division Two performers with a 25.6 points per game average.

 Jones reached double digits in each of the 27 games she played this season, a mark that included 22 games with more than 20 points and nine games with more than 30 points.

 But Jones did much more than score for the Raiders. The former Falcon led Shippensburg with 97 assists, three-point field goal percentage and led the nation in both free throws attempted and made.

 For Jones, 2018-19 was simply a continuation of a freshman campaign in which she was tabbed the PSAC’s Eastern Division Freshman of the Year, led the PSAC in scoring and set the conference’s record for scoring by a freshman, with 609 points.

 – Jeff Falk