MILL CREEK — A balanced scoring attack helped Jackson overcome the limited play of leading scorer, Brett Kingma, in the first half of Tuesday’s 4A District 1 first-round playoff game.
The Timberwolves had four double-figure scorers, led by Austin O’Keefe with 19, as they defeated the Spartans 57-31 on their home court.
Kingma, who leads the conference in scoring at 30.9 points per game, picked up two fouls early in the first quarter and was sent to the bench by Jackson coach Steve Johnson for most of the rest of the half.
“It was kind of a weird game in that respect,” Johnson said of being without Kingma for such a large portion of the game. “We had great balanced scoring, a ton of assists with (Mason) Gilchrist and (Chima) Acholonu each with five and (Jason) Todd had four … We just had great ball movement to compensate for being without our leading scorer.”
The other three leading scorers for the Timberwolves were Todd and Gilchrist, who scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, and Kingma, who finished with 11 points, all in the second half.
With Kingma out for the majority of the first half, Jackson buckled down on the defensive end as well.
“Our defense in the second half was outstanding,” said Johnson. “We held them to just the 31 points, I’m mostly pleased with the low shooting percentage of 36 percent that they shot.
“We just really kept our composure.”
The Timberwolves host Arlington Friday night in a winner-to-regional semifinal.
At Jackson H.S.
Stanwood 6 8 10 7 — 31
Jackson 12 8 20 17 — 57
Stanwood—Garcea 4, Thayer 0, Roberson 6, Hushagen 0, Zipp 2, T. Harris 7, Swenson 2, Youngren 0, S. Harris 2, Williams 0, Taylor 8, Sears 0. Jackson—Acholonu 0, B. Kingma 11, Brown 4, Graff 2, Bray 0, Todd 11, O’Keefe 19, Gilchrist 10, Valdez 0, Waite 0, Saufferer 0. 3-point goals—Harris 1, O’Keefe 1. Records—Stanwood 8-13 overall. Jackson 19-2.
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