Patch’s Janelle Loney goes up for a basket during a game against Lakenheath in last year’s DODDS-Europe basketball tournament in Mannheim, Germany. Patch was runner-up last year; this year Loney and her teammates have their eyes on winning it all. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
STUTTGART, Germany
Patch guard Janelle Loney is a 15-year-old of few words and many basketball skills.
The skills, including an 18.9-point scoring average, have helped Patch, D-I runners-up in 2009, to a 9-0 record and the pre-tournament favorite’s role.
The sophomore’s few words came together perfectly before practice Tuesday as Loney attempted to satisfy an interviewer’s curiosity about matters that struck her as immaterial.
“I just want to win a championship,” she said after fielding questions about the pros and cons of remaining unbeaten, the advantages or disadvantages of playing as tough an opponent as Bamberg (9-1) just prior to the European tournament or what position she prefers to play.
All that matters to Loney is that she’s just one of a whole team of players Patch foes have to fear.
“I like having other options,” she said about playing in a backcourt with senior Shy’Kimeyun Alexander and junior Bianca Lopez, each capable of 20-point outings, and her forecourt of junior Claralyn Burt and senior Anne Wasson. “There’s less pressure on me. I can play more easily.”
“Easily,” that is, in the sense of “more loosely.” Loney doesn’t do anything the easy way.
“She’s a great athlete,” said coach Karla Young-Phillips, who pointed out in her successful nomination of Loney to last year’s All-Europe team that Loney’s quickness pays on both ends of the floor. “In the fall, she plays for a German club team, and she helps with her younger sister’s (Youth Activities) team. She’s a role model on the floor and in the community.”
Young-Phillips added that Loney is a perfect fit for her team with her ability to score from the inside or outside.
“We can play a top game or play from the bottom,” Young-Phillips said. “All our players are really versatile. We kind of switch them back and forth and go from there.”
Loney, who also made the All-Europe soccer team last year, spent her summer with Europe’s first AAU basketball team. She said her experience in the national tournament in Florida was an eye-opener.
“I saw I had some things to work on,” she said. “I didn’t get much playing time.”
She gets plenty of playing time for Patch, but that doesn’t keep her from trying to get better.
“Every week, we practice like we are going to fail,” Young-Phillips said. “We correct mistakes on the spot, so we know how to fix mistakes if they happen during a game.”
Young-Phillips said she’s pleased with the way her team has meshed.
“They’re all unselfish,” she said. “They play well as leaders on the court. ”
Real leaders, she continued.
“They’re the ones who pick the lineup,” she said. “They’re the ones who call out the plays. They’re the ones who come off the court and tell us what’s working.”
While Loney did not hear that comment, one of her own reinforced her coach’s point.
“It doesn’t matter who scores,” Loney said. “We just go to the one who’s open.”
What’s open now is the door to that European Division I title that so occupies Loney’s thoughts.
“We’re working together,” she said.
