AURORA | A profile look at Gateway senior Makayla Jones, who is set to play for Team West in the inaugural A-Town All-Star Girls Game set for Saturday, March 18, 2017, at Cherokee Trail High School. The girls game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. (buy tickets in advance: bit.ly/ATOWN2017):
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
A-Town All-Stars Girls Game makes its debut March 18 at Cherokee Trail
MAKAYLA JONES
School: Gateway High School
Year: Senior
Height: 5-foot-5
2016-17 averages: 19.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.6 steals per game
Season highlights: The 2016-17 season saw significant changes for the Gateway girls basketball team, which lost a significant amount of experience from a team that won 10 games and qualified for the Class 5A state playoffs. What Olys coach Tammi Traylor-Statewright did get back was a healthy Makayla Jones, who played in just eight games last season before suffering a major knee injury. Once she returned, the 5-foot-5 guard needed some time to fully trust her knee, but she went on to lead Gateway in nearly every statistical category during an eight-win season. Jones averaged nearly nine points per game last season before her injury, but more than doubled that to 19 points per game this season, which put her second among all Aurora scorers behind UCLA-bound Michaela Onyenwere of Grandview (20.4 ppg) and sixth in 5A. A 34-point explosion against Aurora Central helped her scoring average and Jones — an All-EMAC first team selection — scored in double figures in all but two games, in which she came one point shy. Jones also averaged 8.1 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game, which led Aurora players. Jones will play on Team West in the inaugural A-Town All-Star Girls Game.
Jones vs. Aurora teams: vs. Aurora Central (34 points, 10 rebounds); vs. Rangeview (25 points, 7 rebounds); vs. Hinkley (20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals; 9 points, 15 rebounds, 6 steals); vs. Cherokee Trail (13 points); vs. Vista PEAK (12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks)