Stanwood girls hang on to defeat Jackson
Published 10:53 pm Thursday, January 5, 2012
MILL CREEK — Stanwood led almost the entire way, but Jackson still found a way to make the end of the game interesting.
In a battle of two of the top teams in the Wesco’s North and South divisions, Stanwood withstood a late Timberwolves run, hanging on to win 58-56 Thursday night at Jackson High School.
“A win on the road against a ranked opponent is always good,” Stanwood head coach Dennis Kloke said. “I liked the effort.”
The Spartans outscored Jackson in every quarter except the fourth, where the Timberwolves had a 23-20 advantage. Kloke said that finishing the game is something the Spartans need to work on going forward in the season.
“We didn’t finish the game the way we need to to be a good team,” he said. “We let the moment cause us to panic and physically make errors.”
Jackson, trailing 38-33 at the start of the fourth quarter, fell behind even more as the quarter began, trailing by as many as 13 points. But the Timberwolves continued to battle, forcing Stanwood to commit fouls and give Jackson one-and-one free throws with 5:40 to play. Jackson continued to pick away at the lead, getting it down to 10, then six, then two.
“Stanwood is good on the inside and they controlled the tempo,” Jackson head coach Jeannie Boyer said. “We pressured and created some havoc and sped things up, which helped things go our way.”
The Timberwolves’ defense forced turnovers and stole the ball as it continued to fight against the clock. The Spartans made free throws kept them in front, but Jackson was able to get the ball back, trailing 58-56 with eight seconds remaining. Kelli Kingma ran the length of the floor, slicing through the Spartan’s defense, but her layin bounced off the backboard, then the rim and into the outstretched arms of Stanwood’s Rachel Swartz.
The buzzer sounded and Jackson’s first conference loss of the season became official.
“Two things,” Boyer said after the game. “I’m proud of how my kids fought. And I’m disappointed it didn’t work out in our favor.”
Freshman Tristan Murphy, who hasn’t played extensively because of a recovery from a broken pinkie finger, led a very balanced Stanwood attack with 12 points. Paisley Heckman — who grabbed seven rebounds — scored eight of her 11 in the first quarter and Renee Lucero accounted for 10 points, and the Spartans’ only 3-pointer of the game. Swartz also had seven rebounds.
“They’re solid at every single position. That’s what makes it so hard to play them,” Boyer said.
The fourth quarter had everyone in the Jackson gymnasium holding their breath. Once Stanwood would increase its lead, Jackson would come roaring back with a 4-0 run to get close again. Things were so intense that Jackson’s Hayley Gjertsen actually fought her own teammate for a rebound, which she got and put back in for two points. Afterwards, she appeared to apologize to the Timberwolf she ripped the ball from.
Kingma led all scorers with 14 points and Kristin Stoffel (12 points) was the only other Jackson player in double-digits. Like Stanwood, the Timberwolves spread the ball around, giving everyone a chance to score. Mary Johnson scored nine points and Gjertsen contributed eight. Stoffel and Gjertsen had seven rebounds apiece.
“We just had tons of people contribute,” Boyer said. “Kelli had a good second half and made good choices about when to shoot or pass. Stoffel is always a force for us.”
The Spartans defense focused on sophomore guard Sierra Anderson who they limited to seven points. Her and Kingma were two players that Stanwood wanted to key in on defensively.
“The two guards (Anderson and Kingma) are sophomores, but they don’t play like sophomores,” Kloke said. “They are a sound basketball team.”
Jackson actually scored first in the game, with a quick basket by Kingma right after the tipoff. But Stanwood immediately responded with two points of its own and took the lead on its following possession. The score was again briefly tied at 31 in the third quarter, but the Spartans jumped out ahead in the final couple minutes and never trailed again.
Both coaches congratulated each other on a great contest after the game. Afterwards, Kloke said that with the win Stanwood is a little bit closer to where it wants to be: the district playoffs.
“That makes us one step closer to our first goal of the season, qualifying for districts,” he said.
Boyer has her sights set on the district tournament as well, and a potential rematch with the Spartans.
“We’re hoping that the next time we see Stanwood it will be in the district tournament and we know we can compete with them,” said the Jackson coach. “Now (the Timberwolves) have the confidence that they can not only play with a team like this, but beat a team like this if they execute.”
David Krueger covers prep sports for The Herald. Read his live blogs at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/prepzone, follow him on twitter @Krueger_David and email him at dkrueger@heraldnet.com.
At Jackson H.S.
Stanwood1514920—58
Jackson1213823—56
Stanwood—Duncan 1, Kelleigh 9, Lucero 10, Bingham 8, Ta. Murphy 3, Borseth 0, Swartz 4, Heckman 11, Tr. Murphy 12. Jackson—K. Kingma 14, Rawlins 0, Anderson 7, Lopez-Flores 4, Hagans 2, M. Johnson 9, A. Johnson 0, Stoffel 12, Gjertsen 8. 3-point goals—Lucero 1, K. Kingma 2, Anderson 1. Records—Stanwood 6-1 league, 11-1 overall. Jackson 5-1, 10-2.
