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OXFORD — Before she made history, she made hoops out of old crates and bicycle rims nailed to trees.

For Amanda Jackson, the gaudy records at Miami University were preceded by the humblest of roots in Springfield.

Growing up on the corner of Robinson Drive and Western Avenue, she was the youngest of five girls, "a tomboy," she admits. Then, like now, everybody called her A.J.

"Down the hill from our house were the Robinson Drive projects," said the 5-foot-9 senior guard and team captain of the Miami RedHawks women's basketball team. "Back then, the neighborhood boys and I played roof ball."

She was talking about the small roofs above the doors leading into each apartment in the project:

"The roof was our basket, and if you threw the ball up there and it bounced twice, it was good. If it bounced just once, that was a miss. If you banked it off the building, that was a point. You could also try to dunk, and if you just hit the side (of the roof), we called that a 'Kiddie Dunk.'

"Everybody from Robinson Drive played roof ball, and I got pretty good at it."

Yet, that roof renown was nothing compared to what she's done once she brought her game inside, be it with the Dayton Lady HoopStars, whom she helped win four national AAU titles; at Springfield South, where she won All-Ohio honors; and especially at Miami, where she's put up numbers like no woman in school history.

With the 19 points she scored in her last regular-season game at Millett Hall on Wednesday night, March 5 — a 82-72 overtime victory over Ohio — she now has 1,903 career points.

That's the most scored by any Miami woman and puts her second on the all-time hoops list — ahead of Wally Szczerbiak (1,847) and behind only Ron Harper (2,377).

Averaging 22.2 points per game, she leads the Mid-American Conference in scoring and is seventh in the nation.

Only one other woman in MAC history — Toledo's Kim Knuth — has equalled her career numbers: 1,903 points, 501 rebounds, 311 assists, 297 steals.

Oh, what a feeling

"My first basket ever here?" Jackson said slowly, trying to sift her way back through all those 3-pointers, drives to the hoop and free throws. "It had to be my first college game at the University of Michigan in the preseason WNIT.

"I can't even remember if it was a layup or a shot. But I do remember the second half — coming off players' screens — and hitting some 3s at the top of the key. ... When Coach recruited me, she said she liked a scoring point guard, and I said, 'OK, I like to score.' "

Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa was herself a high-scoring guard (1,086 points) for the RedHawks in the late 1980s. Yet it wasn't her resume as much as something she said that lured Jackson to Oxford when Kentucky and Xavier also were bidding.

"Coach and I talked in her office, and she said, 'You know you're at the right place when you leave and you have that feeling on the way home,' " Jackson said.

"I'll be truthful, I thought I wanted to go to Kentucky, not here. Bigger school, bigger league, lots of exposure. But I didn't feel anything when I left there. When I left Miami with my mom, I did have that feeling.

"And now that it's pretty much all said and done, it was the best place because of the life lessons I got here and the people I met. They helped me grow in so many ways."

She said they helped her endure two years ago when — 10 minutes into the season opener — she tore her anterior cruciate ligament and was lost for the year. After that medical redshirt season, she never wavered in the classroom — she got her degree last year and now is taking graduate classes — or on the court.

"She came back stronger," Fantanarosa said.

Rough stuff

It isn't just Jackson's scoring that makes her so valuable, the coach said: "Defensively, she's often matched up with the other team's best player. On offense, she sees the floor so well. She's one of our best passers."

That last trait is one of which Jackson is especially proud. When she talks about her favorite players, she mentions NBA great John Stockton:

"I love him. He's just a great point guard. The way he distributes the basketball is amazing. There's nothing I love more than dropping a dime (throwing a great pass) and watching somebody finish."

She may relish some of the game's nuances, but what she often sees are knuckles.

"Teams have tried everything on her," Fantanarosa said. "Double teams, traps, box-and-one, triangle-and-two, point guards on her, post players on her.

"And then there are the times teams just try to physically wear her out. Sometimes that's meant pushes, shoves, illegal screens, cheap shots, and I'm over there going crazy about it. It feels like my daughter is getting beat up out there, and they're not protecting her. But through it all, she's held her composure. She doesn't retaliate. There's a high integrity, a high character to her."

That's part of what was celebrated Wednesday night — Senior Night — in a ceremony before the game.

It's why that contingent of her family and friends — some 50 strong, most wearing new "1800 Club" T-shirts bearing her picture — stood and cheered as one from the group cried out, "We love you, A.J."

And it's why — back in her old Springfield neighborhood — she's become something of a celebrity.

"They're excited to see me when I go back, and I'm excited to see them," she said. "It feels good to hear the kids' parents say, 'There's someone you want to look after. Someone you want to follow, 'cause look where it can lead you.' "

It led her from the roof straight into the record books.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156

or tarchdeacon@DaytonDailyNews.com.