MILL CREEK — Usually an ultra-reliable free-throw shooter, Brett Kingma didn’t have a particularly good performance overall at the foul line on Saturday.
But boy, did he make the big ones — even with a sore left ankle.
The resilient Jackson High School boys basketball
team outscored the Auburn Trojans 18-6 in the pivotal fourth quarter of a Class 4A first-round state tournament game on Saturday. Kingma finished with a team-best 26 points, including five made free throws in the final 30 seconds that turned a 67-65 deficit into a 70-67 win. It launched the Jackson
Timberwolves to the Tacoma Dome for the second straight year.
Jackson (22-2) advanced to the 4A state quarterfinals and plays a to-be-determined opponent at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Tacoma Dome. The T-wolves, ranked 4A No. 4 by the Tacoma News Tribune, were behind 61-52 against fifth-ranked Auburn after three quarters. But thanks to big contributions from several players — including freshman forward Jason Todd, senior wing Austin OKeefe and Kingma — Jackson roared all the way back for a thrilling win on its home court.
After falling behind by double digits in the third quarter, “We didn’t panic, and that was good,” said Jackson coach Steve Johnson, whose team was the 4A runnerup last year. “We talked about, possession by possession, we had to get stops and we had to quit trading baskets.”
They turned that talk into success, overcoming a great effort by guard Kevin Henderson, who scored a game-high 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Auburn (21-6). His floater in the middle put Auburn on top 67-61 with 2:24 left.
Forward Zeke Johnson tallied 18 points for the Trojans, who play Kentridge on Saturday in a loser-out, winner-to-state-quarterfinal game.
The game was intriguing until the final tick of the clock. After Kingma missed two free throws with 1.2 seconds to go, Auburn nearly made a three-quarters court 3-point try that would have tied the score. But the ball caromed off the backboard and off the rim.
Kingma finished just 8 of 14 on free throws but he was extremely clutch at the end. He hurt his left ankle in the first half after releasing a jump shot and stepping on a defender’s leg, and appeared to aggravate the injury in the fourth quarter. But he found enough strength and focus to help lift triumphant Jackson.
“Brett (7 of 21 from the field) didnt shoot that great,” coach Johnson said, “but he certainly stepped up big in about as pressure a situation as you could have.”
Todd scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. OKeefe scored 16 points and tallied 11 boards.
Playing more like a senior than a freshman, Todd muscled inside for three close-range baskets during an 8-1 Jackson scoring run early in the fourth quarter. Finding space near the foul line, OKeefe assisted on the final two buckets of the spurt, including a perfect feed to Todd, whose layin got Jackson within 62-60 with 5:04 remaining.
“Jason Todd made some unbelievable plays: 18 points and 13 rebounds,” Johnson said. ”I mean, wow! What a game. An unbelievable performance by him.”
After crashing hard to the court following a missed jumper midway through the fourth quarter, Kingma grimaced and hobbled to the sideline. But at the end of a timeout he turned to his coach and said, “I’m in.”
Did coach Johnson think, just for a second, about removing Kingma from the game?
No way.
“It wasn’t enough to even consider taking him out,” Johnson said. “With the adrenaline (flowing), we’re going.”
Shrugging off the pain, Kingma sure made Johnson’s late-game decision pay off.
At Jackson H.S.
Auburn 13 27 21 6 — 67
Jackson 14 21 17 18 — 70
Auburn—Lee, Quinit 9, Wunder 6, J. Johnson 5, Edwardson, Wade 2, Fisher, Henderson 27, Grant, Z. Johnson 18. Jackson—Acholonu 2, Kingma 26, Brown 4, Bray, Todd 18, O’Keefe 16, Gilchrist 4, Waite. 3-point goals—Quinit 1, Wunder 2, Henderson 2, Kingma 4. Records—Auburn 21-6 overall. Jackson 22-2.
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.
Herald Writer Rich Myhre contributed to this report.
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