MGCCC’s Deshawn Jones signs Division I scholarship

PERKINSTON – Mississippi Gulf Coast's Deshawn Jones has signed a basketball scholarship to continue his collegiate career at Jacksonville State.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound point guard didn't have a Division I offer coming out of West Harrison. He had several options after being a two-year starter for coach Wendell Weathers.

"My whole reason fro coming to Perk was to better myself as a person and a player," Jones said. "Going to Jacksonville, I'll have an opportunity to keep playing basketball."

Jones averaged 13.9 points, 3.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds as a sophomore. He shot 44.5 percent from the field, including 37.7 percent on 3-pointers.

He played in the 2016 MACJC All-Star Game after being named to the All-MACJC South Division second team.

"I think this is a great thing for him," Weathers said. "I felt all year long and after the season, that he was the best point guard in our conference. I know other coaches thought that. He did a tremendous job in just about everything we asked him to do. This is a big payoff for how hard he's worked and all he's put in."

New Jacksonville State coach Ray Harper has signed six players in his first class, and Jones is one of "three experienced upperclassmen that we expect to carry heavy leadership and playing roles for us from Day One."

Jones helped lead Gulf Coast to a Top 20 ranking for much of his sophomore season. He'll now take the things he learned in and around the Weathers/Wentzell Center to the Ohio Valley Conference.

"It helped me to mature as a person and on the court," he said. "The coaching staff at Gulf Coast was everything to me. They taught me to be a better point guard. I realized a lot of things I didn't realize in high school."

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