In her senior season, East Hall guard Jasmine Jenkins is the go-to scorer for a team looking to get back to the postseason.

Jenkins has always been one of the team’s shooters, and this season she’s the Lady Vikings’ main offensive force.

"She’s got a lot on her plate, but she’s up to the challenge," said East Hall coach Joey Rider. "This is the first year she’s really looked to score."

That’s because Jenkins is the point guard, which in the past often meant that she first looked to pass, not shoot.

Even though she led the team in scoring with nearly 16 points per game as a junior, the four-year starter is still getting used to the new role.

"I want to be the best point guard I can be, and point guards create shots for others," Jenkins said. "This season I might score a lot, but then I see my (lack of) assists."

So far it’s worked out well. The Lady Vikings are 3-0 and Jenkins has led the way on the scoreboard, finishing with a team-high 12 points in a 45-23 win over Gainesville on Dec. 6 and scoring 29 to hold off Hall County rival North Hall 53-45 on Dec. 9.

For her efforts, Jenkins is The Times Athlete of the Week.

Not only did Jenkins score 54 percent of the team’s points in the win over the No. 10 Lady Trojans, she scored her team’s final nine points on 9 of 10 free throw shooting to preserve the win.

"She means a lot to us, and on the court she does a lot for us," Rider said. "She’s definitely our leader on the floor."

Jenkins wants to lead this team far this season before she leaves to take on a new role as Vanderbilt University’s next point guard.

"I would definitely like to win Lanierland again, definitely like to win our region and get as far as we can at state," Jenkins said. "The furthest I’ve gotten is the elite eight my sophomore year."

Last year, East Hall and Jenkins fell to Buford, a team boasting two players —Tennessee recruits Kaela Davis and Andraya Carter — who will be joining Jenkins in the SEC.

If the Lady Vikings can win the region this year, they would likely avoid that kind of matchup in the first round.

And a key challenge for Jenkins this year is making sure that if she is thinking about the possibility of playing Davis and Carter again, that it’s thinking about playing Buford instead of playing Tennessee.

"The biggest thing is my mental approach to the game," Jenkins said. "I signed with Vanderbilt to play basketball and it’s so hard not to overlook my senior year."

To help, Jenkins is thinking about how her improvement on the high school court will help her at the next level. Being the primary offensive option, she’s getting better at finding new ways to score, even if not all the shots go in.

"Her (shooting) percentage is not great, but she’s accepted that role," Rider said. "She’s got to create her own shot."

Which meant that early on at North Hall, when the Lady Trojans were leading and Jenkins wasn’t making shots, the East Hall point guard kept shooting.

"You don’t know if you’re going to make it if you don’t shoot it," Jenkins said after the game.

When she started hitting her shots in the second half, she could hardly be stopped, finishing with 19 second-half points.

Not only did she light up the scoreboard in the second half, she also led a defense that kept the Lady Trojans at bay and dived into the scorer’s table to grab a loose ball.

Her mind clearly hasn’t moved on to Vanderbilt just yet.

The point guard credits the team’s early success to the work that the Lady Vikings have put in.

"We’ve put a lot of work into our season," Jenkins said. "Games are like celebrations almost because the practices are so terrible."

The next "celebration" is Saturday at home against Flowery Branch. It’s another chance for Jenkins do what a point guard does best, to lead her squad to another win.