AUSTIN, Texas — Long before Jenna Plumley hit rock bottom, she had one of her best moments on a basketball court.
As a freshman guard for Oklahoma, she made six 3-pointers to lead the Sooners to a first-round win in the NCAA tournament. It never got quite so good for her again with the Sooners.
A little more than a year later, she was gone from Oklahoma, suspended after being charged with trying to steal $34 worth of makeup from a Walmart. In search of a new start, Plumley left her native state and transferred 480 miles away to Lamar in Beaumont, Texas.
It was a great move for her and the Lady Cardinals.
Plumley has revived her career this season, earning Southland Conference player of the year honors while leading Lamar to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991.
“It was my choice to leave everything in the past,” Plumley said. “I’ve met lifelong friends here. The players and coaches all took me in like family.”
The 14th-seeded Lady Cardinals (26-7) play No. 3 West Virginia (28-5) on tonight in the first round of the Memphis Regional. Sixth seed Texas (22-10) plays No. 11 San Diego State (21-10) in the other first-round game in Austin.
The games at the University of Texas will be on the same court where Plumley made all those 3-pointers for the Sooners against Southeast Missouri State in 2007.
Considering all the drama and miles traveled since then, that game now feels like ages ago.
A Native American, Plumley was a source of pride for her community when she went to Oklahoma. She tried to embrace the pressure of being a role model, but that didn’t make it any easier to fulfill.
Her mom says Plumley struggled to adjust from her small hometown of Red Rock to living on a big college campus and playing for one of the top programs in the country.
Carol Plumley could sense her daughter was unhappy, even when she was starting every game for the Sooners as a sophomore.
“She wasn’t the Jenna that left Red Rock,” Carol Plumley said. “She didn’t seem happy. She forgot about her family values. It’s good to have my little girl back ... She’s just a totally different person (at Lamar).”
Lamar coach Larry Tidwell tried to recruit Plumley when he was an assistant at TCU, then extended a lifeline when she needed one.
“Life is full of second chances and we gave her one,” Tidwell said. “I knew it would work because she had a good heart and was very competitive.”
Plumley re-energized her life and her game at Lamar. Away from campus, she teaches basketball to a group of girls in grades 2-7, some of whom are taller than the 5-foot-2 Plumley.
On the court, her 107 3-pointers and 220 assists this season are Southland Conference records.
“She basically is the team’s offense,” said West Virginia guard Sarah Miles, the Big East defensive player of the year. “She’s really small and that makes her harder to guard. If I’m able to defend her, I don’t know where the offense will come from.”
Lamar guard Ashley Crawford said Plumley fit in immediately with her new teammates and brought the kind of moxie needed to compete with big-time programs.
“A lot of us had not played at as high of a level. She brought us confidence we didn’t really have before. We all feed off it,” Crawford said.
Plumley remains a fan favorite for Native Americans. Members of the Alabama-Cushatta tribe from southeast Texas attend Lamar’s home games. One man from South Dakota drove to Lamar’s season opener at Minnesota.
Plumley had wondered if those fans would abandon her after her arrest.
“When something like that happens, you really find out who is there for you,” she said. “The Native Americans have never left my side.”
