The Rosary basketball team has Faith

The Rosary basketball team has Faith.

Faith in the program, faith in their talent, and oh yeah, Faith Jones.

Jones, a two-year starting guard for the Royals, has enjoyed her senior year, as she dedicated the off-season to becoming a better player. As a result, her numbers have improved and the Royals are enjoying a successful season.

With all the above, how can you not have faith in Faith?

"I have a lot of faith in Faith, probably the most amount of faith in Faith you can have in Faith," fellow senior guard Victoria Alvarez said. "One, the name. I don't think that's a coincidence and (two), she's a very good person. She's very easy to rely on. She's very cool. Everyone gets along with her."

"I don't know where my name came from, but I like it," Jones added.

Here's something else Jones likes -- how much her off-season efforts have paid off. She played with Neuqua Valley girls basketball coach Mike Williams' team, the Illinois Wildcats, in addition to playing with the Royals in the fall.

"Over the summer, I had no social life at all," Jones said. "All I did was play basketball."

How has it paid off? As a junior last year, Jones was third on the team in scoring at 7.6 points per game. She was not among the top leaders in the Tri-Cities Area any other category, yet still landed a spot on the all-area team.

This year, however, it's a different story. Jones is averaging 11.4 points a game (seventh in area, second on team behind Jordan Rettig's 13.6 ppg), shooting 71 percent from the free throw line (up from last year's 65 percent) and 3.6 steals a game (fourth in the area, second on team).

"This year, she is a lot more consistent," Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. "Last year, she had some really nice moments…but realistically, she put a lot of time into playing in the summer for Mike Williams, and obviously, he gets the best out of his kids. She really worked hard and wanted to get better."

Jones' career high still stands at 30 points against rival Aurora Central Catholic last year, but she's had some solid games this year, including 21 points against Hampshire, 18 in the loss to West Aurora, 19 in the win at Marian Central and 18 the first time the Royals played St. Edward.

The scoring is nice, but what else Jones has done is taken the pressure off Alvarez, a four-year starter. With Jones doing a lot of the scoring, Alvarez can focus on what she does best -- distribute the ball, get steals, handle the ball and play defense.

"I knew last year, (Alvarez) had a lot of pressure on her…I didn't want that this year," said Jones, who was the leading scorer on the sophomore team as a sophomore. "So in order for us to win more games, I had to take that pressure off her. I worked hard to learn how to score more."

Alvarez acknowledged what Jones has done for her. But there's more to it, she said.

"(Faith) contributes every game, even if its not with points," Alvarez said. "She's a defensive machine. She always comes through for us, whatever it might be."

Perhaps one of the most underrated things about Jones is her rebounding. An average of 4.8 boards a game might not seem to be a lot, but when you are 5-foot-5, it is a lot.

"I know where the ball is going most of the time, and I try to get there," Jones said. "My dad has really shown me how to try to figure out where the ball is going to go and how to get position. I worked on that in the summer."

"People don't notice that," Alvarez added on Jones' rebounds. "She's so aggressive. Height does not matter for her. She plays hard. She goes all out."

"She sneaks in and gets those rebounds," Beebe added on Jones, who made the all-tournament teams at Geneva's Thanksgiving tournament and at Oswego's Holiday Classic.

Including Jones, Rosary is losing 5 seniors. The Royals recently set a school record in wins with 21 -- and the season is not over yet.

Last week, the Royals had their Senior Night. That's when it really hit Jones that this is it.

It also hit Beebe as well.

"The seniors are going to be missed, but I think they've really set the tone in our program," Beebe said.

Jones' future is still undecided with college and basketball. She knows she is going to go pre-med, but that's it. One thing is for sure, though.

"I'm going to miss the team, but I'll be back to visit them next year," Jones said.

Now that's something next season's Royals can have faith in.