SLIPPERY ROCK — When Jake Whitmer is asked what he wants to improve about his basketball game, the answer is simple.

“Everything,” he says, smiling.

It’s not that Whitmer, a junior point guard for the Slippery Rock High boys basketball team, has a lot of flaws in his game.

He is leading the Rockets in scoring at 10.6 points per game and is also averaging 4.5 assists per contest.

At the free throw line, he is converting 82 percent of his attempts and also has 20 steals on defense.

But as bold as he’s been on the court, slicing through the defense, lobbing perfect passes and drawing fouls while pausing in mid-air taking a shot, he’s just as quiet, reserved and humble off of it.

It’s the two sides of Whitmer and both work.

“He’s a great kid, that’s the best thing about him,” said Slippery Rock coach Phil Bushre. “He’s an all-around good one.”

Whitmer has been playing basketball since he could walk.

His father, Merle, is a longtime youth basketball coach as well as the golf coach at Slippery Rock.

Jake Whitmer said of all the people who have encouraged and pushed him, his father tops that list.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be around good basketball minds like my dad, (Slippery Rock High girls basketball coach John) Tabisz, (former Butler boys basketball coach) George Abraham, and many others taking the time to help me be the best I can be.”

Whitmer also takes the time to be his best.

“He definitely has the respect of the guys in the locker room,” Bushre said. “I think No. 1 is his work ethic. He’s the hardest working guy on the team and he shows that every day.”

Whitmer is a basketball junkie. When he’s not practicing his skills on the court, he’s watching games, either in person or on television.

It’s been a trying year for the Rockets as a team. Slippery Rock is 5-13 overall and just 1-11 in the stacked Region 5-AAA in District 10.

The Rockets are 4-2 out of the region, including a win last Saturday against WPIAL quad-A Seneca Valley.

“It was good to get the taste of winning back in our mouth,” Whitmer said of the 48-44 win over the Raiders. “That’s another thing that’s tough about our region. I saw something someone wrote on one of the boards, ‘Slippery Rock beat Seneca Valley? Seneca is a quad-A playoff team. We’re taking for granted just how good this region is.’”

How good? As of this week, the teams in the region had a combined record of 89-55 and a 31-10 mark outside of the region.

To Whitmer, though, that doesn’t make the losing any more palatable.

“We are in a tough region, but I keep telling the guys we have to keep working and getting better. Every day, every practice, we have to keep getting better.”

Whitmer has become the unquestioned leader on the court for the Rockets, in part because of his cool demenor and his solid play.

“His play is an example, too,” Bushre said. “Every stat, not just scoring. Rebounds, assists, steals, free throw shooting — these are all things he’s worked on. I think those things command attention when you are a leader.”