MILL CREEK
Jackson had its chances against archrival Meadowdale.
But the Wolfpack struggled in the fourth quarter, while the Mavericks hit several key baskets and free throws to pull out a 50-45 victory in a Western Conference South Division girls basketball game Jan. 17 at Jackson High School.
The Timberwolves were not able to sustain the momentum they generated in the third quarter as they saw a 39-35 lead slowly turn into a deficit.
“We didn’t execute down the stretch,” Jackson head coach Jeannie Thompson said. “We had a lot of opportunities to score baskets, hit free throws at the end of the game. 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.”
Jackson connected on only 58 percent of its free throws (14 of 24), well below its season average of 70 percent.
Senior guard Marelle Moehrle led all scorers with 20 points. Moehrle scored six of those 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 seal the victory for Meadowdale.
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 in the fourth quarter, 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 guard Kristi Kingma.
Meadowdale freshman guard Julia 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 close out the scoring.
“I wanted to make sure I had my best free throw shooters on the floor just like any coach,” Meadowdale coach Dan 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.”
Thompson wasn’t surprised by the barrage of shots from Meadowdale to start the game.
“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 Hanna 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 scored on a three-point play by senior forward Michelle Addington, who led the Timberwolves with 13 points.
“She does a really good job of powering the ball to the basket and she’s pretty crafty on the inside,” Thompson said of Addington. “So even for her height she’s able to get the ball up to the rim. She was able to finish strong and get to the free throw line.”
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.
Taylor challenged the Mavericks.
“I told them it was our quarter,” he 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.’”
Kingma, who is averaging 18.7 points per game, was held to only two field goals and 10 overall points.
“I think she was pressing a little bit,” Thompson said. “She wanted to win this game and was trying to do what she could to do her part for the team. She had an off-shooting night. She tried to make up in other ways — defensive rebounding and passing to her teammates.
“We just fell a little short. She put her heart on the floor.”
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. Meadowdale defeated Jackson 55-53 on a late basket by Jones on Dec. 13.
“We’re going to see teams like (Meadowdale) at the district tournament and then hopefully we can qualify for the state tournament,” Thompson said. “Having played in a couple of games like this — two games where it’s come down to the wire with them — it’s going to make a huge difference once we get on the state floor.”
Taylor likes playing Jackson because of the 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.”
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