Neal: Jada Hood takes the long way back home to St. Thomas women’s basketball

During a first-quarter timeout Saturday, Jada Hood turned to the crowd at Lee and Penny Anderson Arena and implored them to fire up and cheer louder. The new St. Thomas women’s basketball point guard also appears to be the Tommies’ spiritual leader.

“It just makes me ecstatic when my teammates do great things,” she said. “And I can be as loud as possible and get the crowd into that, too.”

Her mother, Joeleen Hanneman; brother, Qwinten — who is entering the Army in January — and sister, Isabella, were in the stands Saturday, finally able to watch Hood play a college game in St. Paul. Against Army.

It has been a journey for her to get back home.

“That’s part of God’s plan,” Hood said. “You know, sometimes, if you’re not ready for things, God will detour you and he’ll lead you right to where you’re meant to be.”

The inaugural basketball game in Anderson Arena also was the debut of Hood, who was born in St. Paul and attended Roseville High School. Her relationship with Tommies coach Ruth Sinn goes back to when Sinn recruited Hood out of high school. But that was before St. Thomas jumped to Division I in 2021, meaning back then the Tommies could not offer scholarships.

“I just knew the way my financial situation was with my family, I didn’t want to put more of a burden on them,” Hood said. “So I went the JUCO route, which I’m grateful for.”

She knows how to portal.

“JUCO is for dawgs and dawgs only,” she said. “Because it’s not the end of the journey. You can’t get comfortable.”

After leading Christian Brothers with 15.0 points per game last season, Hood put her name in the portal again. This time, she reached out to some coaches via email, including Sinn. Shortly after that, the two spoke on the phone.

The conversation went something along these lines:

First: “How are you doing?”

Soon, Hood was on her way to St. Thomas as a graduate transfer.

Hood scored five points and added five rebounds, seven assists and two steals on Saturday in the Tommies’ 67-61 loss to Army. She made the only three-pointer of the day for St. Thomas. Following the game, she sat next to Alyssa Sand, who had 14 points and six rebounds.

“We’ve been practicing here this week,” said Sand, a sophomore forward from Albany, Minn. “But playing this game was something different, with the atmosphere and everything.”

Lee and Penny Anderson, whose $75 million donation made the arena possible, requested that Army would be the Tommies’ first basketball opponent.

“What a great opponent,” Sinn said. “They are a complete package. They are disciplined. They’re hard-working. They play with energy and they can shoot the ball really well.”

Army buried five three-pointers while outscoring St. Thomas 30-12 the rest of the way. Hood found Sand cutting to the basket for a layup to re-tie the game at 59-59 with 1:47 remaining in the game. The Black Knights made all the plays the rest of the way, including Reese Ericson’s breakaway layup after stealing an inbounds pass with 21.3 seconds to play to seal the win.

“I think we still got good shots,” Sinn said. “We just have to finish them.”

I returned from the press conference room to the media section with several thoughts:

• St. Thomas, which was crushed 85-36 on Monday at Iowa State, is trying to replace its top four scorers from a year ago. It’s going to be a challenge.

• The men’s team beat Army 83-76 behind 20 points from Nolan Minessale, but the game was upstaged at halftime by Rong Niu. You know her by her stage name, Red Panda. The legendary halftime performer broke her wrist in a fall at Target Center on July 1 while performing during the Lynx’s loss to the Fever in the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup final. She returned to entertaining crowds this past week and is made her return to the Twin Cities, drawing several standing ovations during her performance.

• And, finally: Hood can come home and play at a school she wanted to play at five years ago and for a coach she admires.

That’s bigger than a shiny new arena.