Mercer County junior standout Timberlynn Yeast working to make her game even better

Timberlynn Yeast likes to get teammates involved in the offense with her passing. (John Herndon Photo)

Timberlynn Yeast has 14 Division I scholarship offers but the Mercer County junior understands there are some things she needs to do better to land offers from even higher-profile schools. The 5-9 wing player worked to become more skilled with her left hand.

“I spent a lot of time on that. Everybody knows I can go right, so if I add that left hand I can go both ways and try to do that a lot,” said Yeast. “Teams overplay me and force me to go left but that’s okay now.

She also knows her outside shooting must improve and believes it has.

“Just through a lot of repetition, I am more comfortable shooting,” she said. “I need to develop that outside shot and show I can use it. But for our team, I need to do other things.”

She is averaging 212  points and 9.5 rebounds per game this year for the Titans. She’s 94 of 204 from the field and 83 of 129 at the foul line.

Yeast has already amassed 1,685 points and 838 rebounds in 96 career games and could be that rare athlete to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in high school.

Yeast is 524 of 1,184 from the field and 405 of 666 at the foul line where she tends to go a lot each game because of her athleticism that is hard to defend.

She has offers from Belmont, Marshall, Elon, Eastern Kentucky, Northern Kentucky, UNC Charlotte, Southern Mississippi, Miami (Ohio), Bryan College, Ball State, Florida International, Southeast Missouri, UMass-Lowell and Tennessee-Chattanooga.

“Recruiting can be overwhelming at times but I enjoy it. I have heard from a lot of schools and I  talk to a lot of schools,” the junior said. “I try not to even think about college. I just want to play and enjoy our season.”

Rebounding is something else she enjoys.

“It is all about want to and I love that. I am quick to the ball and that really helps,” she said.

Yeast also understands the value of hustle plays like diving into the bench to save a loose ball even with her team comfortably ahead like she did in a recent game.

“You just have to do that. That is how I play because I know it matters,” Yeast said.

She’s also not one to pad her scoring totals in big wins. She prefers to pass and see teammates score.

“That’s a chance to get everybody else’s confidence up, get those assists stats up and get everybody feeling good. That’s just me and how I think,” Yeast said.

She’s also a track standout. She won the 400-meter and 200-meter dashes at the Class AA state meet in 2021 and was also on the winning 4×400 relay team. Her father, Terry, is the track coach.

Yeast is a part-time track athlete. She runs from the time basketball ends until AAU play starts in June.

“I spend about three months on track and don’t really train for that,” she said. “To me, it’s basketball. Dad is the (track) coach, so I have no choice but to run. I just do it because of him. I don’t even really like track that much. It does help my basketball conditioning. I do have to admit that.”

She hopes Mercer can contend for the 12th Region title this year. She knows Southwestern and Danville are considered the teams to beat but believes the Titans will be contenders by tournament time.

“I think I am playing pretty good but I know I can do more to get everyone else involved and help us win,” she said. “We have not played our best yet but when we do, I think we can beat anybody.”