MILL CREEK — Two top Western Conference contenders, Monroe and Jackson, collided on Thursday night and in three of the four quarters neither squad had much advantage.
But in one decisive period, the second, it was all Jackson.
The host Timberwolves used an offensive and defensive
flurry to outscore Monroe by 16 points in the quarter, and the burst helped lift Jackson to a 74-55 boys basketball victory that clinched a 4A District 1 playoff spot.
Guard Brett Kingma ignited the barrage, opening the frame with 12 straight Jackson points, and by the end of the period the T-wolves had turned a three-point margin after one quarter into a 19-point halftime lead.
“We’re a team of runs,” said Jackson coach Steve Johnson. “That’s kind of how we try to play. It’s kind of what we feed off, and the second quarter was a good example of that.
“When you make shots, obviously it makes (the coach) look a lot smarter than maybe you really are,” he added with a smile. “Kingma made some shots (early in the quarter) and they had to extend the defense more to him, and then he found other people for some decent looks.”
Defensively, too, “I thought we took them out a little bit of what they wanted to do,” Johnson said. “I thought we played pretty good defense in the first half.”
Monroe had several turnovers in the second quarter, coach Nick Wold pointed out, “and they capitalized on our turnovers. Most teams when you make a mistake, they sometimes make you pay. But with Jackson, every single time you make a mistake it’s a bucket, it’s a 3, it’s a foul.
“You just can’t afford to make mistakes against them and we made too many, especially in the second quarter,” he said.
Trailing 42-23 at halftime, Wold said, “it was tough to rebound from that.”
The lead twice reached highs of 26 points late in the third quarter, but the Bearcats never quit. Monroe ran off 10 straight points to start the fourth period to draw within 16, but could never come closer in the remaining minutes.
“Give the credit to Jackson,” Wold said. “The speed they play at, I don’t think we’ve seen that quite yet. They really have a high-octane offense, and unfortunately we weren’t prepared for that kind of speed. … I was disappointed in our defensive effort. We’re going to have to get some things fixed.”
One player who stood out for Monroe was guard Joey Roppo, who had 14 points (tying post Cole Parker for team scoring honors) and did a good job defending Kingma, one of the state’s leading scorers. Kingma finished with 20 points, but was just 8-for-27 from the field and had just two points in the second half.
“I thought Joey Roppo’s effort defensively against Kingma was fantastic,” Wold said.
Jackson, meanwhile, got a strong game from forward Austin O’Keefe. Because of early foul trouble he played sparingly in the first half, but in the second half he scored 15 of his 17 points, including 11 in the third quarter.
“He has really, really improved (since last season),” Johnson said. “He really got a lot of confidence in the district playoffs and then the state tournament (last year), and that really carried over into the spring and summer. He’s just kind of kept on an upward spiral. … He can take the ball off the dribble, he can shoot from outside and he can rebound.”
O’Keefe finished with six rebounds, while teammate Jason Todd, a freshman, totaled 15 points and eight rebounds. Kingma had six assists.
Jackson is “a great basketball team,” Wold said. “They do exactly what they do, and when we made mistakes they capitalized on them. They’re going to be tough to beat in our conference.
“They were in the state championship game last year and they’re battle tested,” he said. “And it goes to show they’re ready for these types of challenges. And we weren’t ready tonight.”
At Jackson H.S.
Monroe 10 13 14 18 — 55
Jackson 13 29 21 11 — 74
Monroe _ Roppo 14, Bunge 4, Pham 0, Turner 5, Drivstuen 2, Peloquin 2, Ulanovskiy 4, Reilly 2, Meeus 8, Parker 14. Jackson _ Acholonu 3, B. Kingma 20, Brown 4, Graff 4, Todd 15, O’Keefe 17, Gilchrist 6, Valdez 0, Waite 5. 3-point goals _ Turner 1, Acholonu 1, B. Kingma 2. Records _ Monroe is 7-2 in league, 10-4 overall. Jackson is 8-0, 12-1.
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