Warriors fall to Timberwolves in Wesco 4A South Division girls basketball clash
Published 11:38 am Thursday, December 8, 2011
MILL CREEK
It’s rare for a basketball ball team to have such an important league test in the first week of December, but the Jackson girls were ready for this one.
The Timberwolves took out defending Wesco South champion Edmonds-Woodway with a convincing 56-43 effort at Jackson Dec. 7 in the league opener for both teams.
Jackson coach Jeannie Boyer was all smiles after the game.
“This was a really big win for us,” Boyer said. “(Edmonds) Woodway obviously has had amazing talent the last few years. This year’s team is no different for them. They have depth at each position. You have to worry about every kid on the court. I thought our girls did a nice job of recognizing their playmakers and trying their hardest to stop them.”
Sidney Eck helped E-W build an early lead, scoring at will inside after the Warriors fell behind 3-0 to open the game. Starting with a pair of free throws just over three minutes after tip-off, Eck scored six of her team’s points on a 10-0 Warriors run.
Eck finished with a game-high 16 points but scored just five after halftime.
“At halftime we talked to our girls just about holding their position in the post,” Boyer said. “Eck is so strong. She’s got excellent footwork inside. If you let her get position she’s going to score on you.”
Jackson tightened its defense and the Warriors never really had an offensive counterpunch. Eck was frustrated inside, surrounded mostly by double teams.
“They made a nice adjustment, so every time she had the ball, she had a lot of friends around,” Warriors coach Duane Hodges said.
Trailing 10-3, after a timeout with two minutes 24 seconds to play in the first quarter, Boyer subbed in freshmen Brooke Kingma and Faithaleen Lopez-Flores, who immediately calmed the Jackson offense.
Kingma, who scored 12 points, hit a 3-pointer on her first shot and it the Jackson attack never really struggled again. Lopez-Flores ended up with eight points.
“What’s awesome about those two kids is that they are very heady players for being young, and they have that internal confidence and calmness,” Boyer said. “You can’t teach that to have it so young.”
The teams went back and forth until just inside 5 minutes remaining in the second quarter when Kingma hit her second 3-pointer of the game to tie the score 26-26. Senior forward Kristin Stoffel hit a turnaround jump shot to give Jackson the lead with 2:26 to go and the Timberwolves never trailed again. Stoffel and Sierra Anderson lead Jackson with 13 points.
“Our youth was exposed,” said Hodges, who lost five of his top six players from last year’s team. “Little things that experience teaches you. We were always a little bit out of position defensively.”
Senior guard Madeline Kasper was second on the Warriors with 12 points and her sister Natalie was next with seven points.
“We lack a little bit of discipline both offensively and defensively which is gonna come,” the Warriors coach said.
What might be most significant about the victory for Jackson is that it came fairly easily and without Brooke’s sister Kelli Kingma. Kelli Kingma injured her knee earlier in the season and will probably miss another two weeks according to Boyer, though she has been cleared for non-contact practice.
The Jackson coach has been able to use Kingma’s absence to the team’s advantage.
“I know the girls are all anxiously awaiting Kelli’s return, as am I, but what it has allowed us to do is give other players opportunities to step up and make plays and they’ve done exactly that,” Boyer said.
She thinks this could be a way to boost the rest of the team to be ready for its ultimate goal: the 4A state tournament.
“I know it’s going to give our team a lot of confidence to know that we can win without Kel and I’m excited to see what we can do once she’s back,” Boyer said. “Then down the stretch when those other players are needed. They are going to have experience. They are going to have these moments that they can come back to.”
