Jenna Clark never minds having the basketball in her hands.
There’s just nothing like the innate pride the Yale senior point guard takes, though, in getting the ball out of them.
“I think a lot of times you’ll have point guards playing on a team that aren’t really point guards, and they are kind of filling in and trying to make it work,” said Clark, a Jefferson Hills native who is a 2019 Thomas Jefferson graduate. “I’ve been playing point guard since I was in fifth grade, and so I feel like it’s just something I’ve really modeled my game around and tried to be someone that my teammates can trust to get them the ball and really lead the team.”
Over the past three seasons at the prestigious New Haven, Conn., Ivy League institution, no player has done so quite as effectively as Clark.
Clark is leading the Ivy League this season with 119 assists. She is the only player in the league with more than 100 assists and is among the top 20 Division I players in the nation in that statistical category.
The 5-foot-7 point guard also leads the Ivy League with an average of six assists per game, which is also good to place her among the top 15 players in the country. Her 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio is second in the Ivy League.
“It’s always something that I’ve been really proud of myself for being able to lead my teammates,” said Clark, whose 437 career assists put her at second on Yale’s all-time list. “I was lucky enough to be voted captain this year by them, which is a huge honor. It’s something I’ve thought about pretty much since the day I got to Yale. That was a goal of mine to be nominated captain my senior year.
“I think just being able to have the trust and confidence that goes both ways, from me to them and from them to me is something that I find really cool.”
While Clark is certainly satisfied with her bona fides as a traditional point guard, second-year Yale coach Dalila Eshe also leans on her standout senior for much more.
Clark tallied game highs with 25 points and nine assists in the Bulldogs’ 74-68 overtime victory Saturday night against Penn in an Ivy League matchup on the road at the Palestra in Philadelphia. She has now scored 20 points or more four times this season.
“Off the court, she is a phenomenal young woman,” Eshe said. “She makes every day light and happy and she’s fun to be around and she’s goofy, everything that you would want in one of your players.”
Clark leads the Bulldogs in scoring this season with an average of 14.3 points per game. She has made a team-high 73% of her attempts from the free-throw line, while also converting on 37% of her attempts from the field and 30% from 3-point range.
“She has a really good ability to score, obviously,” Eshe said. “I love a point guard that can put points on the board and keep defenses honest. She’s an incredible passer as well, you can see that as well in just her assist-to-turnover ratio.”
Gaining the ability to become a well-rounded player is something Clark said she has worked hard on developing since her time at TJ.
Clark joined with former Jaguars teammate Alyssa DeAngelo, now one of the top Division II scorers in the country at Fairmont State, to help lead TJ to the WPIAL Class 5A championship game and PIAA semifinals in 2019.
“We had some really great success at TJ my last two years,” Clark said. “I was lucky enough to play with Alyssa and a couple of other really great players that have gone on to play college ball. That was really cool. Being able to go to the WPIAL championship and go to the state semis it really gave me a taste of what I wanted to achieve in college.”
Clark transitioned to Yale and played mostly in a reserve role as a freshman.
As a sophomore during the 2021-22 season, Clark then burst onto the scene as one of the Ivy League’s top guards after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020-21 campaign.
Clark established the Bulldogs’ single-season assist record at 160, which was good for tops in the Ivy League, while also averaging 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore. She then went on to lead Yale in scoring with 293 points and again lead her team and league in assists with 145 as a junior the following season.
“Definitely getting my teammates involved is my favorite part of the game,” said Clark, who has been named to the all-Ivy League second team each of the past two seasons. “Especially this year, I feel like I’ve really improved in my pull ups and my step backs. I’m really working on a lot of times making the tough shots, getting downhill, shooting behind screens, I really like that. Any type of movement off of a screen, those are my favorite types of shots.
“I’m really just trying to kind of be an energizer for the offense in any way that I can depending on the day and what we need more.”
And Clark is hoping all the work could pay off in allowing her to play more basketball following her final season at Yale this winter.
A sociology major who holds an education studies certificate, Clark said she has worked in sales and marketing internships during the offseason, but the pull to continue her basketball career remains strong.
“I definitely have considered playing pro,” Clark said. “I think I’ll have the opportunity if I want to. It’s really just going to come down to how my body is feeling and if I can really see it in my future. It’s definitely in the back of my mind, definitely an option.”
As far as Eshe — who was drafted 25th overall by WNBA’s Seattle Storm and played professionally overseas in Romania, Turkey, Russia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Taiwan and Portugal — is concerned more basketball could certainly be in Clark’s future.
“If that’s something that she wants to do there is absolutely an opportunity there,” Eshe said. “Teams would be lucky to have her, and she’d definitely have a lot of offers.
“I know that in the future she also wants to get into coaching,” Eshe added. “I think that she would also be a really good college basketball coach as well.”
In the meantime, Clark said she is focused on finishing out her time at Yale strong.
“The goal is to make the Ivy tournament,” Clark said. “For me, my goal is first-team all-Ivy. I’ll take second team if that happens, definitely my goal is first-team all-Ivy and just finish out my year well — good academically and be able to enjoy my time with my friends and teammates at Yale — which are some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life. I’m just excited to see what’s ahead of me.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.