Da’Kariya Jackson wasn’t enrolled anywhere during the fall. Now she’s starring at SEMO

The first three-game homestand of 2025 at Southeast Missouri State featured a rarity in college basketball.

Reinforcements.

Thursday-Tuesday, Jan. 9-14, weren’t merely Da’Kariya Jackson’s first three games of the season. They were her first as a Redhawk.

And Jackson wasn’t merely an addition to the SEMO roster. She has been their best player.

"Hooping is like a lifestyle for me," said Jackson after her SEMO debut on Tuesday. "It’s just a normal thing I do.”

Jackson surprised the crowd with 15 points against Southern Indiana on Jan. 9. and 20 points against Morehead State on Jan.11. She scored 15 points with a team-high nine rebounds and four assists in the Redhawks’ 67-63 loss against Little Rock on Tuesday.

Zoe Best led the Redhawks with 20 points and she alongside Jackson made a combined 14-of-29 from the field and made all six of the Redhawks’ three-pointers. Best has long been the top scorer on the team but the addition of Jackson completes the duo.

“I feel like the weight is off my shoulders and off the team’s shoulders,” Best said. “Her energy is different. Everything about her game is different. She is a three-level scorer. She can do anything.

“Having her on the team has done nothing but help us because whatever position we were lacking, we have that now.”

Facing a double-digit deficit at halftime against MSU, Jackson led SEMO to a second-half rally with eight third-quarter points and a game-tying three-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter of that game. She also took the same amount of three-point shots as Best in her SEMO debut against USI.

"I think she trusts me and I thank [SEMO head coach Briley Palmer] every day for the opportunity she gives me," Jackson said. "Her trust in me is up high, so I try to live to that standard because we got each other back."

Jackson spent the first two years of her college career at Three Rivers CC in Poplar Bluff, Mo. There, she averaged 12.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists a game while leading the Lady Raiders to a Region 16 championship and the quarterfinal round of the NJCAA Division I Tournament.

For that, she landed a spot in Louisiana Tech's recent recruiting class. LA Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr described Jackson as “an explosive scorer” in an article on the school athletic website on April 24, 2024.

"She plays with a great deal of passion and with a high motor on both ends of the floor,” Stoehr said. “She has the ability to distribute, score, and create momentum for her teammates in games and practice. She elevates the level of play of those around her."

For some reason, things didn't work out between Jackson and LA Tech and she took a step back from school and basketball altogether. Having a friend on the Redhawks ultimately led to her enrolling at SEMO and joining the team.

"I never heard from (Palmer) until my friend was like, 'Well, we have a scholarship open.' So I stay connected with a friend, and that's just how it went from there," Jackson said.

“It worked out because she wasn’t in school anywhere in the fall,” Palmer said. “So we did our side of things when she came to us and it luckily worked out for us.”

Palmer used to coach against Jackson when she led in-state rival Mineral Area College, so she was well aware of the type of asset Jackson could be for her rebuilding project in SEMO. Pairing her with Best has given the Redhawks a dangerous duo for opposing defenses that makes them a threat if they make it to the OVC Tournament in March.

“You got to figure out now who you’re going to guard with your best defender,” Palmer said. “We got to find in the game, though, when they don’t have somebody that can guard them to make sure that we’re keeping it in the hot hand and being in attack mode.”

The Redhawks (4-12) have five home games left in the season and as long as they stay ahead of Tennessee State and SIUE, both of whom are winless in conference play, they will make it into the OVC Tournament.

And by then, who knows how this team is going to look.

“I just think that as a team, we’re really putting the pieces together,” Best said. “When it hits, it’s gonna hit and we’re gonna really shock the OVC.”