SHORELINE — The Greek philosopher Socrates fashioned himself a gadfly — literally a type of horsefly — but metaphorically a force that persistently irritates people into action.
You could say that the Shorecrest girls basketball team was a sort of gadfly to the Jackson offense during a match up between the two teams.
In their first two games, the Timberwolves steamrolled opponents by a total margin of 75 points. In their game against Shorecrest, they faced adversity for the first time this season but still pulled off a 49-44 victory Dec. 10 at Shorecrest High School.
The Highlanders came at them with stiff competition, double and sometimes triple-teaming Jackson’s best go-to players like Sam McCracken and Kristi Kingma.
In her debut games as a varsity player, Kingma, only a freshman, ran amok on the hardwood, scoring 19 and 22 points respectively against Marysville-Pilchuck and Lynnwood. Her unexpected performance in those games lifted some of the offensive burden off of McCracken’s shoulders when she was only able to score in the single digits.
This time around, Jackson’s opponents were ready for a two-pronged attack and they countered by keying in on both of the extremely talented players.
Their efforts, however, were in vain.
The Timberwolves had been preparing to face their toughest competition yet in Shorecrest and they gelled as a team just in time to weather the storm.
“We were looking for Shorecrest to be our toughest competition in the first three games,” said Jackson coach Jeannie Thompson. “They’re really athletic. They have a couple of great returners, especially inside, so we figured (McCracken) would have a difficult challenge in the post.”
While Kingma struggled to adjust to a new level of varsity competition, McCracken and other hard-working teammates kept Jackson in command of the game. Whenever Kingma missed from the outside, the ball was quickly rebounded in the post by McCracken and put back up for a score.
By halftime, the double-teamed McCracken already had 18 of her 22 points for the night and it looked like Jackson was going to run away with another one.
In the second half, though, Shorecrest tightened up its defensive game even more, holding McCracken to just four points. That is when the Timberwolves truly pulled together as a team.
Surprisingly, the freshmen did most of the scoring in the second half.
Kingma added six more points for a total of 11, and freshman guard Ashly Burns racked up five.
Freshman guard Ashley Todd, who had been playing with a high energy level all night, pulled through with some key baskets near the two-minute mark, when Jackson’s big lead was cut to six after a series of turnovers.
Todd drew a foul that lead to two points off of free throws, and later drained a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left in the game.
It was all over except for the fouling at that point. Shorecrest got a 3-pointer of its own from senior forward Amy Farquhar, but it was too little, too late.
For the Jackson girls, pulling off the hard-fought victory had been a matter of adjusting and overcoming.
“In the first games, I was restricted, but that just opened up (Kingma) to score a lot of points,” said McCracken. “In this game, they knew what a threat she would be, so the whole team had to pull its weight. We never know what a team is going to bring defensively, but after the first few minutes, we can tell, and we feed off that and go.”
That is easy to say for a senior like McCracken, but how about the freshmen that were such an integral part of the win?
“For me to play at this level was a totally different experience,” said Kingma. “I had players coming at me with double-teams, and the crowd was louder. Other players were there to step up, though, and it ended up as a great experience.”
“I was really proud of how our girls handled the pressure tonight,” said Thompson. “They responded to it, battled through, and pulled out a victory. There was a lot of poise, especially in the end.”
The Timberwolves will need to exercise that poise even more as they prepare to face Meadowdale and Kamiak in their next two games.
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