![\"DSC_4377\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/DSC_4377-199x300.jpg\")
As a senior at Bellbrook High School, Jana Gross said she never planned on playing college basketball. That might sound surprising for a player that lead the NJCAA in assists last year at 7.5 a game.<\/p>\nAs a senior at Bellbrook High School, Jana Gross said she never planned on playing college basketball. That might sound surprising for a player that lead the NJCAA in assists last year at 7.5 a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI originally wanted to play volleyball,\u201d Gross said. \u201cI thought I was too short, not quick enough and didn\u2019t have enough ball handling skills to play basketball at the college level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinclair women\u2019s basketball coach Jeff Dillon saw something different. At the advice of an AAU coach, Dillon decided to scout the 5-foot-4 Gross and said he was impressed with the poise and leadership she plays with.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people look at players and think it\u2019s just about the number of points they score, but (Gross) has the uncanny ability to make everyone on the team better with the way she distributes the ball,\u201d Dillon said.<\/p>\n
In need of a point guard to run his up-tempo style offense, Dillon offered Gross a scholarship to play for the Lady Pride. Gross said it was a hard decision to give up volleyball and come to Sinclair to play basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cVolleyball was where my heart was at, but I\u2019m really happy with my decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gross said the competition at Sinclair has been a lot different than high school. She said the pace of the game is a lot faster and the players are more athletic. She said players often underestimate her because of her height.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing short, you\u2019re really quick and that\u2019s a very good advantage to have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As a freshman, Gross lead the NJCAA in assists and guided the Lady Pride to a 12-13 record, in a year where they only had nine players instead of the traditional 12.<\/p>\n
This year, Gross\u2019 assists are down more than three a game, but the Lady Pride have already surpassed last season\u2019s win total.<\/p>\n
\u201c(This season) everyone is making that extra pass, which I love,\u201d Gross said. \u201cI don\u2019t care that my assists are dropping. I\u2019m happy that we\u2019re winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"DSC_3983\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/DSC_3983-199x300.jpg\")
Dillon said Gross is one of three leaders on the team. He said players can\u2019t help but laugh and smile when they\u2019re around Gross because of her bubbly personality, but at the same time she can get in someone\u2019s face if need be. Gross said her leadership ability comes from her competiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone has to step up and take the leadership role and put people in the right spots, I\u2019d rather do that and do it right rather than let somebody else do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
With only eight games left, Gross said she thinks the Lady Pride can win out the remainder of their schedule and have a good shot at the national tournament. What happens after Sinclair, Gross is not so sure of.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to keep playing if I can,\u201d she said. \u201cI may not be the best defender (or) the best offensive player, but I\u2019m going to hustle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a senior at Bellbrook High School, Jana Gross said she never planned on playing college basketball. That might sound surprising for a player that lead the NJCAA in assists last year at 7.5 a game. \u201cI originally wanted to play volleyball,\u201d Gross said. \u201cI thought I was too short, not quick enough and didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[958,1402,1383,236],"class_list":["post-4038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-jana-gross","tag-samuel-huist","tag-sports","tag-womens-basketball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-138","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4038"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4064,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}