ARLINGTON — After watching their 15-point lead shrink to three by halftime, the Jackson Timberwolves needed a spark. Enter Austin O’Keefe.
On the receiving end of several picture-perfect pick-and-roll plays, O’Keefe scored 10 points in the pivotal third quarter and helped th
e Jackson High School boys basketball team defeat the Arlington Eagles 77-66 on Tuesday. O’Keefe (19 total points, 11 rebounds) and teammate Brett Kingma (33 points, eight assists) were a seemingly unstoppable duo for Jackson in the Western Conference 4A crossover game, which matched the top team from the South Division against an Arlington squad that went into the contest tied for first place in the North Division.
“This is one of the best teams in the North, no doubt about it,” said Jackson coach Steve Johnson, whose team outscored Arlington 30-10 in the third quarter, “and they’ll be a factor in the playoffs so it’s nice to come into their gym and get a win.”
In the first half Jackson (7-0 Wesco 4A, 11-1 overall) built leads of 16-6, 28-13 and 33-24. But Arlington, primarily fueled by senior guard Griffin Ginnis, rallied and got within 35-32 by the intermission.
“We knew we should have been up more,” said O’Keefe, a 6-foot-4 senior forward/wing. “We knew we weren’t playing up to our potential.”
Showing better ball movement and execution, Jackson changed everything with a furious 8-0 scoring run to start the third quarter. O’Keefe kicked off the burst by making a close-range jump shot set up by Kingma’s nice pick-and-roll feed. After that, guard Mason Gilchrist made a long jumper, Kingma hit two foul shots, Gilchrist drilled another two-pointer and Kingma drained a pull-up 3-pointer.
Just like that, less than 2 minutes into the second half, Jackson was on top 46-32. Arlington kept fighting but never fully recovered.
“They just turned it up a notch and we just didn’t match their energy,” Arlington coach Nick Brown said. “They shot the ball really well. It was just boom, boom, boom.”
Ranked 4A No. 2 by the Tacoma News Tribune, Jackson tallied 17 assists en route to its seventh consecutive victory. Most of the assists came in the second half, when the T-wolves took a different approach on offense.
“We got the ball to the open man,” coach Johnson said. “We were not shooting the ball well from 3 in the first half so the second half I thought we went a little more inside-out.”
It was seriously effective. And on defense, whenever speedy Jackson swiped a steal in its 1-3-1 zone it was off to the races, with Kingma frequently scoring layins or earning foul shots.
It’s a challenging week for Jackson, which plays a home game against Monroe — another highly touted North team — on Thursday.
“We knew it was going to be a tough week,” O’Keefe said. “They’re probably the best two teams in the North — Monroe and Arlington — so we’ve been preparing.”
O’Keefe, Kingma, who made five 3s, and freshman forward Jason Todd (12 points, eight rebounds, four assists) all scored in double figures for Jackson. Arlington’s Ginnis (21 points) was the Eagles’ only double-digit scorer.
Arlington’s season-leading scorers, senior guard Zach Cooper and senior guard/forward Eric Carlson, were both scoreless in the first half and finished with six points apiece. Going into Tuesday’s contest, they had combined to average 27 points per game.
Cooper was whistled for three fouls in the first quarter and sat out the entire second quarter. He didn’t score until 3:36 remained in the fourth; his driving layin cut Jackson’s lead to 70-52.
Arlington’s next game is Thursday at Edmonds-Woodway, another 4A crossover clash.
At Arlington H.S.
Jackson 19 16 30 12 — 77
Arlington 11 21 10 24 — 66
Jackson: Acholonu 3, Kingma 33, Todd 12, O’Keefe 19, Gilchrist 8, Brown, Graff, Waite 2, Valdez, Saufferer. Arlington: Carlson 6, Cooper 6, Ginnis 21, Brummel 9, Petersen 6, Goheen, Dawn 6, Cummings 3, Ladines 4, Boyden 2, Davis 3, Struiksma. 3-point goals-Kingma 5, O’Keefe 1, Cooper 1, Ginnis 1, Dawn 1, Cummings 1, Davis 1. Records-Jackson 7-0 in division, 11-1 overall. Arlington 6-2, 8-4.
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam and follow Cane on Twitter at MikeCaneHerald.
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