NORFOLK, VA (WTKR) — Makayla Dickens had done everything she wanted to at Boston College. The Princess Anne grad played 111 games and scored more than 1,200 for the Eagles.
With one more year left to play, she decided it was time to move on to a new chapter, which meant moving home to Old Dominion.
"I spent four years there, I graduated from there," Dickens said about transferring. "I wanted to experience a new place and coming home, it all came full circle for me."
Not only was ODU a familiar place, but the Monarchs also sported a familiar face.
She'd be reconnected with her Princess Anne teammate Brianna Jackson, who had transferred to ODU from Miami in 2021.
"Shooter. We got a shooter," Jackson said. "I was so happy when she was about to come."
The duo paired together again for the first time since 2018, when they helped the Cavaliers win their fifth straight state title.
Since then, they've only been opponents in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
"It was challenging to play against her," dickens said. "She was relentless on the boards."
"It was irritating, I kept telling the guards she was a shooter," Jackson remembered. "They'd leave her open and she would shoot and would knock those shots down."
They no longer have to worry about facing each other. Even after years apart, it's almost as though no time has passed for the pair on or off the court.
"It's easy to get the ball in to her, and I know if she gets doubled she's going to kick it out," Dickens said. "It's super easy."
"I knew she'd come in and be a little goofball," Jackson said. "Bring a little laughter to the team."
Those have shown in the stat sheet. Dickens is the second-leading scorer for the silver and blue at 10.4 points per game and her 46 made threes leads the team. Jackson is averaging 5.4 points a contest and her 4.6 rebound average is second for Delisha Milton-Jones' group.
From Virginia Beach to the ACC and back again, the Princess Anne tandem get one more shot at hometown glory.
"You go to the game and see our parents sitting together again, it's just like high school," Dickens said.
"It just feels so nostalgic again," Jackson said.
ODU is 14-9 on the season, returning to the floor on Thursday night at Southern Miss.
