The DC, Maryland and Virginia area — the DMV — is known for its high school basketball talent with its elite prep schools in the WCAC, including Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay and Maryland legend Greivis Vasquez among others.
But the DMV has also produced several female basketball stars. Currently that includes LSU’s Angel Reese and UConn’s Azzi Fudd, and future stars like South Carolina commit Madisen McDaniel and Maryland signee Kyndal Walker.
Maryland women’s basketball has long utilized players from the DMV to build the program’s long-term success, including Tara Heiss, Christy Winters-Scott, Marissa Coleman and Tianna Hawkins — who became program greats.
That hasn’t changed this season. A pair of Terps this season are DMV natives, Jakia Brown-Turner and Riley Nelson.
Nelson flashed potential during her freshman year, coming off the bench averaging 5.1 points a game across 16 games before an ACL tear cut her season short. She scored a career high 15 points against Niagara, one of three double-digit games for Nelson.
Brown-Turner has really hit her stride for the past month after a slow start to the season. The graduate student is averaging 18.2 points per game since Jan. 9 and has been an instrumental player in the Terps push towards the right side of the bubble.
“Playing against the best is going to make you better,” Brown-Turner said.
Brown-Turner was the sole transfer coach Brenda Frese brought in from the transfer portal from NC State. This year gave Brown-Turner an opportunity to play for her home state school, having built a name for herself in high school at nearby Bishop McNamara in the loaded WCAC conference. Brown-Turner competed in the 2019 McDonald’s All-American Game and was named the 2019 Maryland Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
“There was a lot of competition in the DMV, especially just every night playing in the WCAC when I went to McNamara,” Brown-Turner said. “Every night it was a good game and there were a lot of good players on the teams that are now [Division I] athletes.”
While Nelson’s season ended abruptly, a big part of the Terps’ future success will revolve around her with many veterans graduating after this season. Nelson spent her senior year at Bullis and faced top competition locally and nationally as part of the Independent School League after playing for Clarksburg High School her first three years.
Both Brown-Turner and Nelson lauded the players and competition they faced in their early playing experience, helping them become the talents they are today.
“The DMV is a hotbed for talent,” Nelson said. “… Growing up and seeing a lot of the same faces … just seeing how they’ve grown as basketball players and where we are all now is super cool.”
Maryland’s DMV roots this season isn’t limited to its players. Former Terp and DMV star
Brionna Jones was brought aboard as the Terps’ Director of Player Personnel, where she serves as a mentor to the players and does a little bit of everything.
Jones played for Maryland during its transition from the ACC to the Big 10, where the Terps dominated their new conference foes. Now ten years later, some of the Big Ten has caught up and even surpassed Maryland this year.
“I won’t say it’s necessarily changed so much as it’s grown,” Jones said. “The league and the players from this area have had a high standard since I was growing up but I think just the growth of how many people are playing the visibility of women’s sports.”
Unlike Brown-Turner and Nelson, Jones did not grow up surrounded by lots of basketball talent in her hometown of Aberdeen. Jones started playing AAU basketball at an early age, and needed to be driven at times to Baltimore and Fairfax, VA to play in games and gain exposure.
The competition Jones faced improved each move forward in her basketball journey. That didn’t faze her at Maryland, becoming one of the best players in program history.
Jones is tied for seventh in scoring with 1,928 points and her 1,209 rebounds ranks third all-time for the program. Her legacy continued in the WNBA with the Connecticut Sun, where she was named the Most Improved Player in 2021 and the Sixth Player of the Year in 2022.
“They did a lot of player development stuff to get me ready and then as I played my four years here I learned a lot, IQ wise, just like the game of basketball so by the time I made it to the league I was able to jump right in and catch up,” Jones said.
Jones was a key figure in the DMV basketball scene growing up, playing for the same Fairfax Stars AAU team that Nelson starred on several years later. After blossoming into a star for the Terps, Jones is repaying the favor to Maryland’s current roster — with multiple talented players from the DMV area.
