Bob Lutz: East’s Samajae Jones driven by his mother’s memory

The new part of his name hasn’t caught on yet like he wants it to, but he wants to be Samajae Haynes-Jones now.

East’s senior guard is playing this season in honor of his mother, Sharon Haynes, who died from cancer three weeks before the basketball season. She was 56, too young to die.

And Jones is too young to deal with the loss of a mom. She worked a manufacturing job to keep him safe and sound. She had another child, Shaunita, who is 16 years older than Samajae.

So it was mostly just the two of them.

“I salute my mom before every game,” Jones said. “And I think about her all the time.”

Jones moved in with East coach Joe Jackson after his mother’s death. They watch a lot of college basketball basketball on television and Jackson sees to it that Jones stays on top of his homework.

“He’s been resilient and extremely focused in the classroom,” Jackson said. “He’s been working extremely hard to make his mother proud. He’s on that mission now. The progress reports just came out (Wednesday) and he got all As and B’s. Doing well in school hasn’t always been as important to him but now I think it means something.”

Jones is averaging 16.1 points for the unbeaten Blue Aces, who are at home Friday against Kapaun Mount Carmel.

He has joined with fellow senior Zach Jackson (17.1 points, 6.8 rebounds) and junior Xavier Kelly (13.5 points, 5.8 rebounds) to give East a formidable trio and the team is deep in talent.

The Blue Aces were beaten in the Class 6A semifinals last season by Blue Valley Northwest, a game Jones hasn’t let go.

“To win a state title has been my goal ever since that game last year ended,” he said. “I go into every game wanting to get back into that position. We want to keep it rolling; every night we want to be 1-0.”

Those 1-0s have added up to 17-0. In the storied history of East basketball, no Blue Aces team has gone undefeated in a season and five teams in City League history have done so: Heights ’77, South ’78, South ’88, South ’93 and Heights ’11.

East could potentially play eight more games, so it’s too early to start putting too much thought into that unbeaten stuff.

“We’ve been telling these guys that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Jackson said. “The next three weeks will define the season. We’ve got a tough one Friday night against Kapaun and another tough one Tuesday against Heights. We’re getting tested here late in the season and our focus has to be right. But the thing about our guys is that they have come out focused on most nights.”

Focus has come easy for Jones, who is driven by the memory of his mother.

“Sometimes I’ll be in a class and I’ll start crying and I have to leave to go to Coach Jackson’s room and he’ll give me a lot of good, positive things to think about,” Jones said. “Basketball is really my escape, it really is. I’ve grown as a person during this whole year. And the guys on the team have helped put me in a position to grow in basketball and in life.”

Jones said he considered moving in with his sister and her family after Sharon Haynes’ death, but there are already three kids and foster children in the home.

He and Jackson decided the best fit would be for him to live with his coach.

“It meant a lot to me,” Haynes-Jones said. “A lot of people wouldn’t do that, take people into their houses. But he’s taken care of me and we get along good.”

Jackson often looks at game film while Jones watches basketball or studies. The two of them took in the North Carolina-Duke game Wednesday night.

“He’s a good role model for me,” Jones said of Jackson. “I look up to him.”

Jackson said the relationship has grown. Just last season, Jones missed six games because of academic issues.

The death of his mother and the quest for a state championship, though, has given him purpose.

“We’ve set some ground rules here, but ultimately he’s thrived,” Jackson said. “All of the guys on the team have been extremely supportive. Before his mother passed away, she asked me if I would be willing to take him in. There’s no doubt that Samajae and I have gotten closer.”

The Blue Aces may be a team of destiny. They’re outscoring opponents by 25 points and nobody can match up to East’s Big Three.

“All of these guys know what Samajae has been through and they’ve rallied around him,” Jackson said. “This is a true team without selfishness. These guys lift each other up. They’re a coach’s dream.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2015 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: East’s Samajae Jones driven by his mother’s memory."