Mavs answer challenge, beat back Jackson

MILL CREEK

Meadowdale head coach Dan Taylor issued a challenge to his players.

The Mavericks were trailing archrival Jackson 39-35 after three quarters of play on the road.

At stake was first place in the Western Conference South Division and more than likely the league title.

“I told them it was our quarter,” Taylor said. “Eight minutes basically for this conference. We can have it (the title) for ourselves. So I said, ‘Let’s play Meadowdale basketball for eight minutes and we should be all right.’”

The Mavericks listened.

Senior guard Marelle Moehrle scored six of her game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter and a pair of freshmen made four key free throws with less than a minute left in the game to lead Meadowdale to a 50-45 victory over Jackson in a girls basketball clash Jan. 17 at Jackson High School.

“It comes down to heart,” Moehrle said. “We wanted it. We were down. We just work and worked our butts off to try and come back. … They got a little tired and the momentum switched to us and it was hard for them to regain that back.”

Moehrle scored back-to-back baskets and then sank a free throw as part of a three-point play to give the Mavericks a 42-41 advantage at the 4:36 mark, a lead Meadowdale would not relinquish the rest of the contest.

Sophomore Hanna Fjortoft then sank her second 3-pointer of the game as the Mavericks took a 45-41 lead with 3:31 remaining.

Jackson drew to within one point twice — 45-44 and 46-45 — on a pair of free throws by junior Kristi Kingma.

Meadowdale freshman guard Julie Fjortoft, Hanna’s younger sister, then was fouled and calmly sank two free throws with 48.6 seconds left to give the Mavericks a 48-45 edge.

The Timberwolves missed a shot on their next trip down the court and Meadowdale freshman guard Gabi Beyer was immediately fouled. Beyer successful banked her first free throw off the backboard and then made her second the more conventional way to seal Meadowdale’s 50-45 victory.

“I wanted to make sure I had my best free throw shooters on the floor just like any coach,” Taylor said. “I knew she (Beyer) was one of our most solid free throw shooters. I didn’t expect her to bank it, but we’ll take whatever we can get against Jackson. It was clutch.”

The Mavericks were without starting point guard Eryn Jones, who fouled out with 1:47 to go.

Moehrle took over much of the ball handling duties in Jones’ absence.

“It was a little scary,” Moehrle said. “She’s definitely our point guard. She holds the team together. Two minutes left. It was anybody’s game at that point. So I just tried to try and control the game a little more and get it back on our side.”

Moehrle had the hot hand to start out the game. The 5-foot-9 senior standout connected on four 3-pointers in the first quarter as Meadowdale took a 14-10 advantage into the second quarter.

“I was just feeling it,” Moehrle said.

Jackson coach Jeannie Thompson wasn’t surprised by the barrage of shots from Meadowdale.

“They opened up on a tear,” she said. “We knew they were going to hit their shots. They’re a great shooting team.”

Jackson focused its defensive efforts on Moehrle in the second quarter and limited her to only two points. Hanna Fjortoft, however, picked up the slack, scoring 11 of her 16 points to help the Mavericks go into halftime with a 29-26 lead.

Moehrle’s success from the outside in the first quarter helped open up the lane for Fjortoft.

“They were having to come out on all of us because they were afraid we were going to get on fire, which opened up the drives,” Moehrle said. “I told (Hanna) before the game, I had a good feeling about her. She had a phenomenal game. She took it to them and I just thought we all worked so hard up there as a team.”

The Wolfpack jumped on the Mavericks early in the third quarter and tied the score on a three-point play by senior forward Michelle Addington, who led the Timberwolves with 13 points. A basket by Kingma gave Jackson a 31-29 lead a minute and a half into the third quarter.

Tied at 33 with five minutes to go in the period, Jackson went on a 6-2 run to head into the fourth quarter with a 39-35 advantage.

Thompson said that Jackson didn’t execute its game very well in the fourth quarter.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score baskets, hit free throws at the end of the game,” she said. “We had a lot of turnovers, a lot of them unforced. But you’ve got to give them credit. They stepped up and hit the shots and the free throws when they needed to and we didn’t.”

Kingma, who is averaging 18.7 points per game, was held to only two field goals and 10 overall points.

Because Meadowdale dropped down to the 3A classification and Jackson remained at 4A, the two teams won’t meet in the playoffs and Wednesday’s game was the final meeting between the two teams this season.

Both teams viewed the game as a way to prepare for the district and state playoffs.

“I’m so glad we played them in our league because (we need) as much competition as we can get to prepare us for state and districts because as soon as you go there, it’s tough teams from then on out,” Moehrle said.

Moehrle mentioned to Taylor that the game was going to be the last time she played Jackson.

“She wanted to bring it from the start,” Taylor said. “She was a good initiator of the tempo of the game for us at the beginning and I appreciate her bringing that leadership to the plate.”

Meadowdale defeated Jackson 55-53 on a late basket by Jones on Dec. 13. Taylor enjoys playing the Timberwolves because of the individual matchups.

“The great thing about the Jackson and Meadowdale rivalry is we match up really evenly,” Taylor said. “Player for player we match up very evenly and it really helps us to see what we have and what they have and try to figure out what we can do to get the extra edge over them.”