MARYSVILLE — Right up until the opening tip — when it was announced Jackson had a record of 21-1 — the Timberwolves were reminded of Dec. 8.
It was all the motivation they needed.
Jackson started fast and simply got faster in avenging its only loss of the season and earning a state berth with a 66-54 victory over Snohomish on Friday night in a 4A District 1 semifinal at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Before state, however, is the Feb. 23 district title game against Lake Stevens. Snohomish faces Kamiak Wednesday in a loser-out game.
In an earlier meeting in December, Jackson had a small lead at halftime, only to succumb to a furious Snohomish rally in the second half. This time, Jackson’s small halftime lead mushroomed in the second half.
In December, the tempo was controlled methodically by Snohomish. This time, Jackson got the tempo into the break-neck speed it wanted.
In December, Jackson had just one player score more than eight points. This time, there were five.
This time was nothing like December.
“Every day, coach would come in and remind us that we had only one loss, and we all knew it was to Snohomish,” said Jackson senior Kristi Kingma, whose team lost that earlier contest, 54-49. “Even coming into the game tonight they announced our record with one loss, and we all knew it was to Snohomish.”
The Timberwolves had one of their more balanced nights of the season Friday. Kingma once again led them with 21 points, but Erin Feeney had 15, Chanel Sam 10 and Ashly Bruns and Ashley Todd nine apiece. Feeney hit five 3-point shots.
It was only a 17-16 Jackson lead entering the second period when the Timberwolves ripped off 11 unanswered points to take command. Snohomish managed to trim the deficit to 37-32 off a layup from Karley Lampman to start the second half, but Jackson put together 12 unanswered points this time and went ahead 49-32.
The Timberwolves applied full-court pressure most of the night and did so to their advantage. They forced the Panthers into turnovers on four of their first five possessions to set the tone and continued getting steals and uncontested layups throughout.
“This one has been like a chip on our shoulder,” Todd said. “We knew we didn’t want to slow it down. We wanted the game in transition, because that’s where our strength is. And we did an awesome job of that. We also had to play big inside, because we’re not that big, and we did that.”
Jackson also figured out Snohomish’s triangle-and-two defense which caused the Timberwolves absolute fits in that earlier loss.
“We worked on it the last two days in practice After we beat Oak Harbor, we knew (Snohomish) was going to run it, because they were so effective with it the last time,” Jackson head coach Jeannie Thompson said. “It was kind of a junk offense that we threw together, but we got a lot of points out of it. It was much better this time around.”
Allison Burns led Snohomish with 13 points, while Katie Benson and Margie Heard each added 12.
At Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.
Snohomish1614816—54
Jackson17201214—66
Snohomish – Burns 13, Benson 12, Heard 12, Lampman 9, Scott 4, Guthrie 3, Miller 1, Desmarais. Jackson – Kingma 21, Feeney 15, Sam 10, Bruns 9, Todd 9, Kirton 2, O’Neal. 3-point goals – Feeney 5, Kingma 1, Guthrie 1. Team records – Jackson 22-1. Snohomish 17-6.
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