Pederson leads Glacier Peak boys past Jackson

Published 11:32 pm Friday, December 2, 2011

MILL CREEK — Zach Pederson didn’t have much to say after the Glacier Peak Grizzlies defeated the Jackson Timberwolves 64-59 Friday night.

Apparently he was letting his game do the talking.

Pederson scored a game-high 26 points, including 12 in the first quarter, to help his Grizzlies to the non-conference win in boys basketball action.

“You know Zach is a very steady player,” Glacier Peak head coach Brian Hunter said. “He doesn’t do things that are generally out of his skill set. He just kind of does what he does. He’s a great teammate. These guys love getting him the basketball because he will share it as well.”

Pederson didn’t leave the key very often and his hook shot was deadly for most of the game.

“I’ve been practicing my hook shot for a while,” he said.

The Timberwolves were able to slow Pederson in the second and third quarters — he scored just seven total points in those two quarters thanks in large part to the defense of Jason Todd. By slowing down Pederson, the Timberwolves were able to turn a seven-point deficit into a four-point lead.

“Todd is a big guy and he is pretty strong,” Pederson said. “He knew that he had to stop me and he did a pretty good job on defense.”

But Pederson’s seven fourth-quarter points were enough to help the Grizzlies outscore the Timberwolves 25-16 in the final quarter and escape with the win.

“It’s not like we didn’t know they were going to him,” Jackson coach Steve Johnson said.

“I didn’t expect to shut him out,” Johnson added. “He is a good player and they go to him a lot, you know he is going to get his points.”

In the first three quarters, Pederson got his points mostly out of the offense, but in the final quarter it was his work on the offensive boards where he found the most success.

“He found some pretty critical offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter,” Johnson said. “That is kind of how he got his points in the fourth quarter … the offensive rebounds, and those were kind of killers.”

The Timberwolves were led by a pair of sophomores, Jason Todd, who finished with 20 points, and Dan Kingma, who scored 15.

Hunter said that while getting a win is fun, it doesn’t matter all that much in a non-conference game.

“Hopefully it gets us ready for league,” Hunter said. “Because that is really what these two preseason games are about. These games are fun, but really what matters is league.”

That’s the same message Johnson must tell his players, who have now lost their first two non-conference games.

“Like I told the guys,” Johnson said. “I know it was an exciting game and a game that they wanted to win, but it is December second. We’ve got to keep that in perspective and grow and build as the season goes along.”

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Read his live blogs at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/prepzone, follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at aaronlommers@gmail.com.