Ferndale Holds Off Late Rally in 55-45 Win Over Royal Oak

It was fitting that the Ferndale girls varsity basketball game Friday night ended with Janecia Jenkins getting a rebound.

That’s pretty much how the whole game went for the Eagles. The junior forward dominated the glass on Friday night and her monstrous double-double, 17 points and 24 rebounds, helped the Eagles win 55-45 over Royal Oak High School.

The game was for a share of second place in the Oakland Athletic Association Blue and if that wasn’t enough motivation, a local paper added an extra motivation for Jenkins.

“My coach had told us today that the newspaper said we were overachievers and that we were going to lose to them (Royal Oak) by 4,” Jenkins said. “And I took that into consideration and I didn’t want to be what they said. So I came out really hard.”

The Eagles (8-7; 7-4 Oakland Athletic Association Blue) had big runs in the first and third quarter to put them in control and Jenkins was at the center of both.

Ferndale opened the game with a 16-3 run in the first six minutes. The starters had 13 offensive rebounds, Jenkins and Elissa Parker each had five, in the quarter. Parker and Jenkins each had a pair of put backs off the glass as well.

“Bottom line is they get after to it on that end, they absolutely get after it,” Royal Oak coach Brian Sopata said. “We knew we were going to give up a few (offensive rebounds), but we obviously gave up too many.”

In the third quarter it was more of the same. The Eagles outscored Royal Oak 15-2 and turned an 8-point halftime lead into 21 points. Jenkins scored 6 points in the final 90 seconds of the quarter and showcased some of her versatility.

She backed down a Royal Oak defender in the post with a nice move, had another put back on an offensive rebound and then hit a layup in transition after she stole the ball at mid-court.

“She just has a nose for the ball,” Ferndale coach Berwyn Ellis said. “And she’s just a beast on the boards.”

The Ravens (10-6; 7-4 OAA Blue) offense was nowhere to be found in the quarter. They had a stretch of six minutes with no field goals and Royal Oak’s leading scorer Sami Stormont was a non-factor in the quarter.

She scored 12 of the Ravens' 24 first-half points, but zero in the third. Any time her teammates passed her the ball, Ferndale forced it out of her hands with double teams. Her teammates had some open shots only to come up short.

“We got some looks, but didn’t hit them, you got to hit some of those,” Sopata said. “On their end they got a couple of big 3-point baskets and offensive rebounds. That’s what they do; they really get after it. We didn’t answer some of their baskets.”

Royal Oak’s shooters didn’t have that problem in the fourth quarter. The Ravens scored the first 17 points and cut the Eagles lead down to 4 with two minutes left in the game.

Ferndale’s young guards had trouble advancing the ball against Royal Oak’s pressure defense and a combination of turnovers and poor shooting almost opened the door for a big comeback.

“The thing I said to our girls, we got a lot of pride in our locker room, I said one possession at a time and lets win this quarter,” Sopata said. “We showed a lot of heart and cut it to a 4-point game.”

It wasn’t enough as the Eagles regained their composure in the final two minutes to put the game out of reach for the Ravens. Ariel Walker hit a layup on a nice pass from Micaela Ellis with 1:43 to go to stop the scoring drought and then Taryn Stephens beat the press for a layup at the 1:21 mark to give the Eagles a 51-45 lead.

“Earlier in the season we didn’t have that composure,” Ellis said. “Even though they made a run, we held it together.”

Notes: Jenkins finished the game with five steals. Parker was Ferndale’s second leading scorer with 11 points.  She was one rebound short of a double-double, the sophomore finished the game with 9. Walker finished the game with 6 points and 11 rebounds.