Jackson’s Todd hits game-winner to beat Scots

SHORELINE

Ryan Todd buried a 10-foot jumper from the left baseline with two seconds left as Jackson survived a hard fought game against Shorecrest Jan. 10.

After a tough 60-55 loss to Meadowdale Friday, Jan. 9, the Timberwolves found themselves fighting uphill to keep up with Shorecrest on the road, Saturday night.

But Todd scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, including seven in the fourth quarter.

“He’s an absolute warrior and he’s a tough kid,” Jackson coach Steve Johnson said.

Jackson’s star sophomore and leading scorer Brett Kingma broke his left forearm earlier in the week and is done for the season, but Todd said the team can find ways to win.

“If we play the way we know we can, I really feel we can beat anyone in this league,” said Todd, who averages 18 points per game. “Brett is a huge loss to this team. He’s obviously one of our key guys, we really hate to see him like this, at the same point you got to face reality and move on this point.”

Todd played all but 25 seconds, Johnson said.

“I told my coach before the game, ‘Coach if you need me to I’ll play the whole game, every minute. I’ve got no problem doing that,’” Todd said. “Being a leader on this team, it’s my job to set the example. If I start out strong with heart and passion, guys are going to follow that role and I thought we did a great job of that tonight.”

Shorecrest owned the first quarter behind eight points by Ryan Dodge and took a 16-7 lead.

But Jackson slowly crawled back into the game in the second quarter, sparked by seven points by guard Trevor Bray, who hit a 3-pointer from the right corner at the halftime buzzer.

Jackson fell behind by six in the third quarter, but Todd scored seven points during an 8-0 run to give Jackson its first lead.

“We showed a will to stay out of the game,” Johnson said. “Early in the game, frankly, I thought we might get run out of here the way things were going. Dodge was going crazy.

Dodge, who led Shorecrest with 10 points, did not score in the second half.

“Andy Gay did a great job on him, Austin O’Keefe came off the bench and did a great job on him. Bryan Koch did a great job on him,” Johnson said. “Earlier in the game we were letting them have their way a bit, where he was able to post up and get the ball. We made it a little more difficult for him to get the ball where he wanted and that made a big difference.”

Dodge said the Timberwolves got more physical and he tried to force too many low-percentage shots in the second half.

Jackson took the lead in 47-45 lead on a basket by Bray and free throw from Todd, but Randy Sullivan tied it with an inside hoop with 1:17 to go.

Jackson ran the clock down and had went inside with less than 10 seconds to go.

The ball was blocked out of bounds and Johnson and the Jackson bench pleaded for a foul call, but to no avail.

With 4.6 seconds, to go the Timberwolves inbounded, got the ball to Todd and he came off a screen, went to the baseline and hit the shot.

Jackson improved to 4-2 in the Wesco South and 6-3 overall. The T-wolves played first-place Mountlake Terrace Jan. 13.

Shorecrest dropped to 2-5 in the league after losses to Meadowdale, Mountlake Terrace and Jackson, three of the top teams in the league. The Scots played well for the most part, but to have no wins to show for it was disappointing, Shorecrest coach Brian Fischer said.

“You can play as well as you’re capable and still not come out undefeated in a week like that,” Dodge said.

Still, Fischer said, “I thought we had a really great defensive effort holding Jackson under 50 points.”

Shorecrest shot 46 percent from the field (21-of-46) and made three 3-pointers, two from Travis Hake and one by Jordan Diel. The Scots made only 2-of-3 free throws.

Jackson shot 49 percent from the field (19-for-39) and made 10 of 15 free throws (67 percent).

With the injury to Kingma, other players besides Todd are going to have to step up as well.

“We got guys now that are going to have more minutes for them, they’re going to be in these pressure game situations,” Todd said. “There aren’t going to be any teams we’re just going to blow by. We’re going to have young guys really bring up their game every night and play big time for us and play big time minutes.”