Womens Basketball Signs England's Georgia Jones to National Letter of Intent

[Bogus Smith]

Oral Roberts’ head women’s basketball coach Jerry Finkbeiner announced the signing of Georgia Jones, a 5-9 shooting guard from Manchester, England, to a National Letter of Intent to play basketball for the Golden Eagles during the 2008-09 season.

“We are more than thrilled to have Georgia joining our program,” Finkbeiner said. “She is a quality young player from Great Britain and hope she can come in and make an immediate impact for us.”

Jones is the second player to join the ORU women’s basketball team from England after Dominique Allen, also a Manchester native, signed last week. Both played together on the United Kingdom’s Under-18 European Championship team.

For the past four years, Jones has played for the Manchester Mystics, an amateur basketball league in England. The 2007-08 season was one of the most successful seasons for the Mystics, finishing fourth in the England Basketball League and winning its first-ever playoff game at home to move on to the Final Four. Because of her play throughout the season, Jones was honored with the U-18 Player of the Year award at the conclusion of the year.

The England native also has ties to Oklahoma. Jones’ father, Jeff, is originally from Ada, Oklahoma and played college basketball with coach Finkbeiner at Southern Nazarene. Upon graduation, Jones traveled overseas to play professional basketball and has been there ever since.

“We really like Georgia’s skill level, her size and we see the potential that she has,” Finkbeiner said. “She has a goal of making the 2012 Olympic team and we want to help make that dream a reality for her.”

Jones joins Allen, junior college transfer Amy Pryor and freshman Jordan Pyle who signed letters of intent to play for ORU this upcoming season.

[Bogus Smith]

I heard that the coaches were really high on this recruit and felt she was the creme of the crop.  This may be Jerry's best recruiting class.  Let's hope so!!

[tmh8286]

Sweet!  Another great recruit by Jerry and staff. 

[ron]

I am impressed! This sounds like a great signing. The Europeans take their championships very seriously, so that particular accomplishment is very meaningful.

[jmg1984]

hopefully the team can take it to another level

[ManiacVP]

Coach was really high on this girl the other day. Pretty sure she had A&M after her along with some other big name schools.

[theeagleman5]

Congrats to Jerry...i guess the Finkman is staying???...

[ManiacVP]

yeah he'll be here. Fink is a great guy... im glad the ISU coach took the U of I job. Fink has alot of family back that way and I could see why he might have wanted to go there.

[theeagleman5]

Thanks, Maniac...i will be getting that YB 1 jersey to you soon...just wanted to show it to my kids and ex-wife before i sent it....my ex could not believe that i still had it after 35 yrs and also that i used to fit into it....lol...

[ManiacVP]

haha sounds great, it'll look great hangin on the wing.