Boys basketball: Jackson tops Snohomish 70-54

Published 10:58 pm Tuesday, January 3, 2012

MILL CREEK — It might be time to take notice of Jackson’s boys basketball team.

The Timberwolves defeated Snohomish, ranked third in the Tacoma News Tribune’s Class 4A poll, 70-54 on Tuesday night. Jackson’s Jason Todd continued his stellar play, scoring 27 points to lead all scorers.

“Jason had a great game,” Jackson head coach Steve Johnson said. “I have been telling people for quite a while that I think he is one of the best players, if not the best player, in Wesco. I don’t think anyone who walked in tonight can argue differently — maybe one of the better players around.

“He is just an all-around good player.”

Todd showed it against the Panthers, not just putting the ball in the basket, but also grabbing 12 rebounds and playing solid defense. He shot 10-for-14 from the field and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.

Todd’s defense helped contain Snohomish’s best player, Luke Hamlin, for a time. Hamlin scored just 10 points during the first three quarters, and while he finished with 26, his 16-point fourth-quarter effort came with the game out of reach.

“I don’t know if I bothered him,” Todd said. “I don’t about that. He pretty much did what he wanted. But Luke’s a great player. I’ve known him for a while. I admire him a ton. But I think, just shadowing him as much as possible (helped). I didn’t have much help responsibilities. But again, Luke is a great player, he went off, so I wouldn’t say I bothered him too much.

Much like Mountlake Terrace did in an impressive victory over Snohomish last Friday, Jackson used defense to build its lead, holding the Timberwolves to just 18 points in the first half.

“We were able to build up a big lead mostly through our defense, I think,” Johnson said.

Snohomish head coach Len Bone had a simple explanation as to how the Timberwolves built the lead.

“They were better on offense and they were better on defense,” he said.

The Panthers couldn’t really get anything going on the offensive end until the fourth quarter and by that point, the outcome was no longer in doubt.

“The guys tried, but it wasn’t much of a run,” Bone said.

Todd had some help inside from Andrew Dodd, who contributed 14 points and seven rebounds to the Timberwolves cause.

“Andrew Dodd was huge,” Johnson said. “Brian Zehr had been coming off the bench for us and giving us points lately and he was out tonight with an injury. And Andrew Dodd, we asked him to step up. He has been doing some nice things for us anyway, but not the point production. … He was a huge factor.”

Todd said there is a lot that he and his teammates can take from the victory over the Panthers.

“We can learn a lot,” Todd said. “We have a bunch of young guys playing, it’s a lot of fun really. So, if we can continue our competitiveness and stay together as a team, we are just going to continue to get better and we will see what happens.”

Bone seemed frustrated after his team’s second consecutive loss.

“We haven’t played as well as the other teams both games,” Bone said.

Bone said the key to righting the ship starts in practice.

“We’ve got to try to get better in practice,” Bone said. “But we don’t seem to be able to do that, but we keep trying.”

And for the Timberwolves, with Todd on their side, they look like a team that can beat anybody on any given night.

“He is an all-around player,” Johnson said. “If you need points, obviously he got a lot of points tonight. If you need rebounds, he obviously got a lot of rebounds. I think he is our leading assist guy. He guarded the other team’s best player. I mean, what can you say? The guy does quite a bit for us. You can’t ask much more than that in all facets of the game.”

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 alommers@heraldnet.com.

At Jackson H.S.

Snohomish991026—54

Jackson15191818—70

Snohomish—Yates 7, Hamlin 26, Stewart 2, Crippen 5, Bauska 0, Baird 2, Carlson 2, Reichenberger 10, Harris 0, Caldwell 0. Jackson—Dineen 0, Kingma 4, Brown 6, A. Graff 6, Willgress 5, Dodd 14, Todd 27, K. Graff 8. 3-point goals—Yates 1 Hamlin 2, Reichenberger 2, Brown 2, Willgress 5, K. Graff 2. Records—Snohomish 5-1 league, 9-2 overall, Jackson 5-0, 8-3.