MILL CREEK – Jackson’s Mike Wishko made no 3-pointers in his team’s first 23 quarters this season. The senior forward usually finds himself under the basket rebounding for Brett Kingma and the rest of the Timberwolves’ deep backcourt.
Friday night was a different story.
Wishko drained two consecutive treys in the fourth quarter to seal a 69-60 victory over Shorecrest in a Wesco South battle of unbeatens on Dec. 18.
“I don’t know what happened today,” Wishko said, “but they were falling.”
Wishko led Jackson (5-0 league, 6-0 overall) with seven rebounds, but his six points (he finished with 11) boosted the Timberwolves to a key win on their home court prior to a two-week holiday hiatus.
“Wishko was huge,” Jackson coach Steve Johnson said. “Those were very timely.”
Prior to Wishko’s heroics, the Scots (4-1, 5-1) had eyes on a comeback with their defense finding its rhythm as the game went on. Shorecrest held the T-wolves to a single bucket in the first 3:10 of the fourth quarter. Then Wishko found himself open from the elbow.
“We almost dare them to hit that shot,” Shorecrest coach Brian Fischer said. “That was the difference in the game.”
Wishko hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Kingma added two more 3-pointers to seal the victory, giving him a game-high 21 points despite a tough night shooting from long range.
“That was a good win,” Johnson said. “We’ll take it, certainly.”
The Timberwolves jumped out to a 5-0 lead when Kingma hit a tough 3-pointer 40 seconds into the contest. The two teams traded baskets until, with his team leading 11-9, Kingma took two consecutive transition layups all the way to spark a 15-4 spurt.
During the run, which spanned the first and second quarters, the Scots made it easy on the T-wolves. Jackson took high percentage shots from close range, many of which came on the heels of Shorecrest mistakes on the offensive end.
“Right off the bat we weren’t used to the speed,” Fischer said. “We gave them too many fastbreak points.”
As the second quarter went on, the Scots adjusted and forced the Timberwolves into tougher shots, which translated into a rough stretch for Kingma, who came in averaging 23.6 points per game.
“They did a nice job on him,” Fischer said. “They had different guys on him and kind of wore him down.”
After halftime Shorecrest jumped out with a 10-2 run to pull within three at 38-35. Jordan Brown was the spark with the first six points and four of the first five Scot buckets. The senior forward led the Scots with 19 points.
Shorecrest closed to within two points and had the ball in transition with a 2-on-1 advantage but a traveling violation ended the opportunity to tie the game and Jackson regained control.
“When the momentum was on their side, we showed some real poise,” Johnson said.
The combination of Brown and Emmanuel Chibuogwu Jr. was tough to stop for Shorecrest but the depth of the Jackson frontline stepped up when it mattered. Chibuogwu was second on the team with 14 points.
“(They are the) most athletic (team) we’ve faced all year,” Wishko said. “We kind of take pride in shutting them down or at least trying to.”
Jackson remains unbeaten heading into a Dec. 30 non-league game with Liberty and the target on the T-wolves’ backs grows with every victory.
“We’re getting a lot of notoriety and people think we are pretty good,” Johnson said.
Jon Saperstein writes for The Herald.
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