KIRKLAND — The Jackson girls basketball team turned a slim 22-20 halftime advantage into a 59-36 blowout over Ballard Thursday afternoon at the Kingco/Wesco Challenge at Juanita H.S.
The Timberwolves defense held Ballard to just six points in the third quarter, while the offense went for 19 in the stanza to build the big lead.
“We had really good defensive pressure the whole game,” Jackson head coach Jeannie Boyer said. “They are a really physical team and their physicality bothered us in the first half. And our kids just mentally got tough in the second half and were able to battle with them.”
The Timberwolves also got great play out of their guards. Sierra Anderson finished with six points, eight assists and two steals and Kelli Kingma added 15 points, four assists and five steals.
“It was nice point guard play by the two of them,”Boyer said. “You know, to come in with 12 assists between two kids, they really worked at distributing the ball and getting their teammates involved and that helped us jump out to that second half lead.”
Kingma also knocked down the only two 3s of the game for either team.
“Her court vision is so good and she brings a different dynamic that other teams have to account for,”Boyer said of Kingma. “It loosens everything up for everybody else because of the things that she is able to do out on the court.”
Kristin Stoffel added 13 points for the Timberwolves.
“Kristin is just rock solid,”Boyer said. “She is a kid that is always going to play well for us. She had 18 points yesterday and she comes in with 13 today. She just broke over 1,000 career points yesterday. She is a kid that, she doesnt have a flashy game, but she is so consistent that we depend on her. And she is able to do the small things that we need to get wins.”
The Timberwolves have won their opening two games of the Kingco/Wesco challenge and while the records dont ultimately count toward playoff berths, Boyer said there are positives that the team can take out of the victories.
“It’s really nice,”Boyer said. “This game was a good game for us because their physical size on the inside is going to be comparable to what we are going to see with Stanwood. The guard play that we saw yesterday and the inside play is similar to what we are going to see against Arlington. So there are things that hopefully we can take from this and apply to our North and South opponents in Wesco and just to be able to battle with other teams is good for your kids.” At Juanita H.S.
Ballard128610—36
Jackson9131918—59
Ballard—Verduin 4, Sechler 4, Ishiyama 1, MacGeorge 2, Bailess 0, Soukup 0, Suchland 0, Hall 4, Bender 13, Beckett 8. Jackson—K. Kingma 15, Rawlins 2, Anderson 6, Lopez-Flores 5, B. Kingma 2, Charleson 0, Hagans 2, M. Johnson 0, Murphy 2, A. Johnson 2, Mason 2, Stoffel 13, Gjertsen 8. 3-point goals—K. Kingma 2. Records—Ballard 3-6, Jackson 8-1.
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