Big game by Jenna Slates leads Green past St. Joseph Academy
CANFIELD, Ohio - Jenna Slates laid the ball in the basket when time expired on Thursday night as Green defeated St. Joseph Academy 48-43 in the South Range Holiday Hoops Classic.
And why not? The 5-foot-11 junior had done everything else for the Bulldogs in the game as Slates scored a game-high 23 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, had six steals and blocked a pair of shots.
Her biggest play of the night came with the teams tied 42-42 with 2:35 left as she bodied up Mya White of St. Joe's and stole the ball. She then got the ball to Sydney Shocklee, who brought it across midcourt and found Ava Kouri for a layup to give the Bulldogs a 44-42 advantage with 2:24 left.
"Jenna is one of those kids where you look at her and say 'I need you to come up with a play,' and she will follow through with it," Green head coach Alicia Manning said. "And when it came down to it, she put her willpower and her determination to I need this ball, I need it now."
Part of what has made Slates unfazed by the contact she might endure on a play like that comes from practicing against her head coach, who at 6-foot-1 played in the post at the University of Tennessee.
"It's a part of her getting better is making her almost desensitized to the contact that she sees in games," Manning said.
Slates knows that beating and banging against Manning in practice is only going to make her better.
"She'll come in and we'll have alumni come in and help and it just really helps having bigger size especially her," Slates said. "And having better competition just makes you better overall."
And while the physical part of playing against Manning in practice helped on that last steal, so did what Manning has been teaching the Bulldogs mentally.
"We have our 3 'D's - dictate, discipline and disrupt on the ball," Slates said. "I know it had to be a big play so I was all on the ball."
Every time the ball went in the air Thursday night, Slates was around it, whether trying to block a shot or come up with a rebound. Part of her energy came from Green having a break over the Christmas holiday, which gave the players a chance to rest.
"I was kind of nervous coming back because we only had one practice and then we had a shoot around today," Slates said. "But I really did feel refreshed and our whole team is motivated now that we have a win."
Even in the midst of a big game like she was having on Thursday, Slates doesn't think about the numbers as the game is happening.
"I don't really care about my stats as long as I'm playing my heart out," Slates said. "And then that will prove out on the stat sheet. I don't really know (my stats) until after the game. But it feels good knowing what I've done on the floor."
With Slates being just a junior and still having more than a year and a half of high school basketball to play, her head coach has a message for those who haven't seen her star play.
"She's fun to watch, everyone should come watch her honestly," Manning said. "If you want to see a 5-11 girl play like she is 6-5 and has 30 more pounds of muscle, that's Jenna Slates."
-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh
(Feature image of Green's Jenna Slates by Jeff Harwell, SBLive Sports)
