Holy Coley! Point guard among elite scorers in nation

As recently as last week, Panthers point guard Jerica Coley listed her two state high school championship tennis titles as her biggest sports accomplishment to date. By season’s end, the sophomore may be forced to reassess her biggest athletic feat.

With only seven games left in the regular season, the St. Petersburg, FL, native is No. 2 in the country in points scored per game. She’s been ranked in the Top 5 since December 2011. But if you’re looking for Coley to be loud and proud about it, you misunderstand what motivates her.

The humble, low-key Coley says the elite rankings are nice, but “mostly, winning is what I look forward to.”

The Panthers have done plenty of that this season (15-7, 5-4 Sun Belt Conference) behind the strength of Coley, who leads the team in four categories:  points per game (24.9), rebounds (7.2), assists (4.3) and blocks (2.2).

In a Jan. 28 game against SBC foe Western Kentucky, Coley netted her 1,000^th career point when the Panthers beat WKU 60-56 at U.S. Century Bank Arena. Coley was the team’s leading scorer with 36 points in the game. Last year, Coley became just the second freshman in school history to score 500 points in a season. With 501 total points, she fell just three shy of tying a 19-year-old school record for most points scored by a rookie.

The two-sport athlete took up basketball in middle school. She began to flourish under the tutelage of her aunt, Tamika Coley, who is University of Central Florida’s women’s basketball record holder for career points and rebounds and led the Knights to a conference tournament title and NCAA appearance in 1996.

Coley excels in the classroom as well, carrying a 3.35 GPA as a dietetics and nutrition major. She hopes one day to be a university professor.