‘K-Mac’ Boosts Blazers

PENN LAIRD – When Spotswood High School sophomore McKenzie Jenkins was interviewed after her basketball team’s 53-40 win over Harrisonburg on Tuesday, she was admittedly a little nervous. When asked if she had a nickname, she responded quietly, “Kenzie.”

 

But Tayler Dodson, her more boisterous teammate, helped her out. “K-Mac!” Dodson said jubilantly.
 

On the floor a few minutes earlier, it was Jenkins giving her teammates a lift.

 

After the Blazers got off to a sluggish start, SHS coach Chris Dodson took his best two players – Bailey Williams and Tayler Dodson – off the floor late in the first half with the score 13-8. That’s when Jenkins scored five straight points, part of an 8-0 run in the final minute of the period to give Spotswood breathing room for good.

 

“We always try to log minutes like that [for supporting players], just to see who steps up,” Chris Dodson said, also noting that both Williams and Tayler Dodson (his daughter) had two fouls when he subbed them out.

 

When that happened, Jenkins was hardly shy. She stole Harrisonburg’s next in-bounds pass, then made a lay-up, plus the foul. She missed the foul shot, but the Blazers got the offensive rebound, and Jenkins then hit a 3-pointer from the corner off an in-bounds play.

 

“Just going off,” Jenkins said shyly about her spurt.

 

That helped Spotswood (16-1 overall, 7-1 in the Valley District) rebound from its first loss of the season, a 66-37 blowout against prep power Germantown Academy in a tournament in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Dodson and Williams finished with 15 and 13 points, respectively, after slow starts.

 

Harrisonburg (6-7, 2-6) was led by juniors guard Sydney Knupp and Sara Shenk-Moreno, who scored nine apiece. The Blue Streaks played their fourth straight game without leading scorer Keyana Whitley-Duncan, who sprained her ankle during warm-ups before a Jan. 8 game at Broadway.

 

HHS coach Bill Bayer, who said he’s hoping to have Whitley-Duncan for a pair of non-district games this weekend, still came away pleased after keeping Tuesday’s game close early.

 

“That was maybe the best game we played all year, especially considering we were missing Keyana,” Bayer said. “I told my kids, that was one of the first times all year that I really enjoyed watching us play.”