Teammates friendship built on love of the game

They say basketball builds character, strengthens mental toughness and teaches patience. Radford women’s basketball senior forwards Jayda Worthy and Janayla White will tell you that it also builds friendships and creates a special a bond in the basketball sisterhood.

The duo arrived on Radford’s campus in the Summer of 2014 for freshmen orientation and summer workouts, meeting one another for the first time. Spending a lot of time together with basketball activities, Worthy and White also discovered that they both planned on majoring in criminal justice.

“We really didn’t talk that much off the court in the beginning,” Worthy said. “The second semester of our freshman year is when we really started to talk and hangout more off the court. That started our connection.”

That connection has only grown larger and larger as the two spend a majority of their time together. They discovered early on that one another was on the same page when it comes to the game of basketball.

“We both had the same mindset in our freshman year. There were other people on the team that were used to being the star player,” Worthy noted. “We understood that we had to come in and work hard to earn our spot in the lineup.”

Joining a program that had just gone 7-23 the season before (2013-14), both knew they would experience their fair share of bumps in the road as second year head coach Mike McGuire looked to restore Radford women’s basketball to the glory days of the 1990’s.

“It was a bit rough, especially during the season. Coach McGuire was starting to build the program back up to what it once was and I came from a program that had been historically good,” White added. “I had to learn that progress takes time and the learning curve from high school to college basketball was much different.”

The duo played their first collegiate basketball game on Nov. 16, 2014 against Virginia. Worthy earned a start and White came off the bench, both playing 19 minutes. White recorded her first of many double-doubles with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Worthy contributed eight points and eight rebounds.

That first collegiate season saw White start 24 of 31 games and Worthy start 23 of 30, maturing quickly from unseasoned freshmen to adept post players in what seemed to be overnight. The two earned Big South All-Freshman honors after averaging a combined 13.6 points per game and 12.7 rebounds per game.

Those strong numbers as freshmen didn’t come without a couple “welcome to college basketball” moments from summer workouts to first game jitters.

Summer workouts during my freshman season. I can remember my first workout with coach [Scott] Bennett,” White added. “The conditioning we went through was my welcome to college basketball moment for sure. This is how NCAA Division I athletes are supposed to train and get work done.” 16415

Worthy spoke to how different the game was from high school to her first college practices and scrimmages.

“My first game, the tempo was much faster paced than I was used to. The players were better and stronger,” Worthy stated. “The Virginia game is when I realized that this is how everything is supposed to look like.”

That freshmen season saw the Highlanders put together a 17-14 overall record and a 14-6 clip in conference play, earning the second seed in the Big South Tournament. After a tough loss to seventh-seeded Gardner-Webb in the tournament quarterfinals, Radford earned a trip the WNIT after finishing second in the regular season, the program’s first since 2008.

A 10-win improvement and postseason appearance may have been enough success for anyone, but Worthy and White were hungry for more.

“We learned how college works after that first year. Managing academics and basketball became much easier,” White said. “After the first go around of Big South games, you gather a sense of who the best players are the second time you face a team. I started to notice different things about each player, their strengths and weaknesses, while studying how to stop them.”

A full season under their belts, Worthy and White were ready to take on the Big South, while taking the program to the next level during their sophomore seasons. A season full of promise turned into a lot of doubt and what-ifs as Radford lost two of its sophomore guards (Claudia Quevedo and Brittany Allen) to season-ending knee injuries in its first scrimmage.

“I’m not going to lie, there were doubts in my mind. I started to think about how are we going to handle this. Are we going to be good? How are we as a team going to step up? People started learning different positions in order to adapt to the situation,” Worthy said. “I’m very proud of how we handled it.”

Radford started the 2015-16 season campaign with a 4-4 record, before losing freshman point guard Jen Falconer to another season-ending knee injury on Dec. 18. Following the third major injury to the Highlanders, Radford found itself with eight healthy players. However, the Highlanders went 13-7 over its next 20 games. During the stretch, Radford lost its fourth player to a knee injury as all-conference guard and floor leader Aisha Foy went down on Feb. 13.

“Our first two seasons, we were mentally tough. We played for each other and together,” Worthy added. “We handle adversity pretty well with whatever was thrown at us.”

Not backing down from adversity, Radford finished with an 18-13 record and 13-7 clip in Big South play, earning the third seed in the tournament. The Highlanders faced adversity once again in the tournament’s quarterfinals with a large halftime deficit to sixth-seeded High Point. Radford stormed back, picking up McGuire’s first tournament victory and advancing to the semifinals. The semifinals saw the Highlanders drop a hard-fought 51-41 battle against rival Liberty.

“We’ve all dealt with our fair share of injuries, even personal,” White noted. “Even through all of that, we still found a way to get better and grow our program’s culture.”

Growing as teammates and as friends, Worthy and White appeared to be ready for that special season. Entering the 2016-17 season with a healthy and experienced roster that had overcome its fair share of adversity, the special bond of the Double J’s would be on full display.

A certain type of telepathy developed between the two as a result of the amount of time spent together between the now roommates.

“If I get stopped on a play, the first thing I’m looking for is to see where Jayda is cutting. She almost 99.9% of the time is cutting to the basket to help me out,” White said. “I feel that we understand and read each other well. We developed that connection early, which has a resulted in knowing exactly what one another is going to do on the court.”

Coming off a season in which they both averaged double-figure scoring and White finished as the only Big South player averaging a double-double, the tandem led Radford to an 8-3 start to the season before stepping into league action.

“We entered the season with a lot of confidence. We had progressed every season and were finally healthy,” White said. “I felt like every time we got off the bus, we were going to win with our defense.”

Radford continued its hot start into league action, finishing with a 14-4 clip in Big South play and a 24-9 overall record, second most wins in program history. Worthy earned first-team honors for the first time in her career, while White followed her first-team campaign in 2015-16 with an honorable mention selection.

After capturing Radford’s first Big South Regular-Season Championship in 25 years, the Highlanders took the next step in postseason play. In their first year, Worthy and White appeared in the quarterfinals. Their sophomore year saw a semifinal appearance and their junior year saw Radford’s first tournament championship appearance in nine seasons.

Leading for 37 minutes of the championship game, Radford watched its lead slip away, falling short of the first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996 in a 49-48 loss to UNC Asheville. 16416

Worthy and White found themselves together in one of the most difficult moments they have encountered as college basketball players – the postgame interview room following a championship loss.

“It was more comforting with her being there beside me. We have been going through the same thing since day one and we finally got to the game that we had worked so hard for so coming up short was very difficult on us,” Worthy added. “That’s three years of trust built up, we have each other’s back. We’re going to do everything now to make sure that feeling never happens again.”

Despite falling in the tournament championship, Radford made its second WNIT appearance in the last three seasons.

Possessing a 59-36 overall mark over the past three seasons with a 41-17 record in Big South games, McGuire looks to have kick started the culture movement with the help of his two 2017-18 Big South Preseason First-Teamers.

“We are a family. It’s about being yourself at all times,” White said. “We’re a goofy group, but we know when it’s go time, we can flip the switch.”

The word family plays an important part in the program as a majority of the roster hails from different states. Without players buying into the program’s culture, family would not have the same meaning as it does to the current 14-Highlander roster.

“Most of our team is more than five-hours away from home, so personally I rely on my team as my family. That’s the culture Coach McGuire has built, “Worthy noted. “I can go to them for anything.”

Fans may have noticed how close the two are on the floor, while opposing benches and professors may confuse the two on different occasions, which is not hard to believe as the two are practically the same person.

–RU Athletics