Jenny Place joins Bethany College's 1,000-point club

BETHANY, W. Va. -- Getting the opportunity to play both guard and forward for the past two seasons with the Bethany College women's basketball team has helped Jenny Place of Farmdale to climb into the school's history book.
Place, a 5-foot-8 senior from Badger High, has capitalized on her ability to score from both the outside and inside to join an elite list of Bethany players who have scored more than 1,000 career points, several of them from the Youngstown area.
Place became the 14th player to join the 1,000-point club in Bethany's 66-57 win over Grove City on Jan. 21, when she scored a layup.
Then by the end of the game, in which she scored a game-high 23 points, she moved up to the No. 13 ranking with 1,005 career points, climbing past Jennifer Haggerty (1,001 from 1990-94).
Place then followed her historic game by scoring 15 points in Bethany's 92-89 overtime loss to Thiel on Jan. 25, giving her 1,020 points entering Saturday's game at Westminster.
The team leader
Place, a tri-captain, leads Bethany in scoring (18.7 points per game), rebounding (6.4 per game) and steals (39). She is shooting 80.5 percent at the foul line (66-of-82), 40.6 percent on field goals (130-of-320) and 31.9 from 3-point range (37-of-116).
Place said playing two positions made her a more effective scorer.
"Sometimes I play guard or forward and it's been that way the past two seasons," she said. "I had to adjust to different ways of scoring. The experience gives me more different weapons to use."
Place joined three other Youngstown-area players in Bethany's 1,000-point club: Rosanne Scott (Struthers), who ranks No. 3 with 1,636 points from 1996-00; Katie Hardie (Mooney), sixth with 1,262 points from 2000-04), and Jennifer Rodkey (Fitch), No. 8 with 1,217 points from 1992-96.
Scott, who ranks behind Jill Kamerer (1,914) and Kelley Richardson (1,755) is Westminster's women's basketball coach.
Place's 23-point game against Grove City marked the ninth outing in which he has scored 20 or more points and was her third in four games.
But although Place is having what she feels is her best season at Bethany under second-year coach Rebecca Upton, the team is not (6-13 and 2-4 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference).
"As a team, we are kind of struggling but my sophomore season was the best for the team. We ended 23-5 and won the PAC before losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament," said Place, noting the team has only three upperclassmen.
Team is inexperienced
"We have a lot of young players. Sometimes we started three freshmen, and there are only two seniors [Place and senior guard Renee Shehady] on the team, and being a captain [I] have had to take on more of a [leadership] role."
Place said she scores a lot from the outside and on fast breaks.
"I am scoring most of my points from the outside. I probably average about 2-3 3s a game," said Place. But, "We are fast breaking team as a whole. We score in transition a lot and we really have good guards to get the ball out."
The team's second- and third-leading scorers are 6-0 freshman Courtney Irwin (10.6) and sophomore guard Lisa Mitchell (10.4).
Place leads the team in rebounding despite being only 5-foot-8. "I am able to get off the ground pretty well," she pointed out.
She said that leading the team in steals stems from her emphasis on playing good defense.
"It is something that I focused a lot more on since coming to Bethany," she said. "I realized that was where I needed the most improvement.
The daughter of Mike and Mary Place, Jenny also excels academically with a 3.9 grade-point average as a physical education major. She is planning to graduate in May and would like to teach and coach basketball in high school -- hopefully her alma mater -- where she was coached by Jim Wade.
"I want to come back to Badger if there are any openings , but we will have to see what happens," said Place.
kovach@vindy.com