Wolfpack downs Warriors

EDMONDS

Jackson may have had an off shooting night against Edmonds-Woodway, but the Wolfpack defense more than did its job.

The Timberwolves limited the Warriors to only 11 first-half points, while scoring 29 en route to a convincing 63-44 victory in a Western Conference South Division girls basketball game Jan. 10 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

The Wolfpack sputtered to start the game, missing five straight shots on its first offensive possession.

“We obviously came out kind of slow,” said Jackson senior guard Kristi Kingma. “We weren’t really hitting our shots. … We might not have made a lot of shots, but we played hard.”

That was abundantly evident on the defensive end as Edmonds-Woodway struggled to move the ball up the court and was forced into numerous turnovers. The Warriors turned the ball over 27 times.

“We tried to force a lot of passes that weren’t really there,” said Edmonds-Woodway senior center Erin Lauber. “When it came down to it, they have a really scrappy defense. We weren’t coming to the ball like we should have.”

After Edmonds-Woodway tied the score at 4 on a pair of free throws, the Timberwolves went on a 13-2 run and finished the quarter with a 17-6 advantage. It was more of the same in the second period as Jackson outscored Edmonds-Woodway 12-5.

Jackson senior guard Ashley Todd led all scorers with 16 points. Senior guard Ashly Bruns added 12 and sophomore guard Erin Feeney had 12, as did Kingma.

“Ashley Todd played awesome. Ashley Bruns was hitting some really big shots,” Kingma said.

Still, the Jackson offensive effort wasn’t what head coach Jeannie Thompson was looking for from her squad.

“We didn’t play too sharp tonight,” she said. “Credit Edmonds-Woodway’s half-court defense. They played very, very tough half-court defense and they pressured us into some things that we weren’t comfortable doing. Our passing wasn’t where it needed to be tonight and we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. But the good thing was we rebounded hard and we were still able to get out on transition and get some steals. It helped us to be able to push the lead and get the win.”

Jackson connected on 28 of 59 shots, while the Warriors were 14 for 39 from the field.

The victory marked the halfway point of the regular season, with Jackson atop of the league standings with an 8-0 record (10-1 overall). The Timberwolves were scheduled to take on defending league champion Meadowdale on Jan. 16, the results of which were not available for this edition of The Enterprise.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Kingma said. “The second part of the season is the most critical. You want to end your season well. You want to go into districts and state hopefully playing your best.”

Rebounding is one area where the Timberwolves can continue to improve, Kingma said. “If we continue to rebound and push the ball I think we’ll be able to beat anyone.”

Both Kingma and Thompson expect Edmonds-Woodway to be a tough team in the second half of the regular season, especially with their height.

“They’ll be good in the years to come and they’re already good,” Kingma said. “They have some big girls. That’s key for a team in Wesco because they’re able to block shots and just interfere with everything. I thought they did a really good job on us tonight.”

The Warriors were led by Lauber, who scored 14 points, and freshman Ashley Albertson, who had 11.

As for Jackson, Thompson is pleased with her team’s play in the first half but sees room for improvement. The Timberwolves have to be more attentive in passing the ball to key players at the right time.

“The last couple of games we haven’t been passing the ball as well as we needed to and being as crisp on offense as we needed to,” Thompson said. “That’s definitely a focus, especially in our half-court sets. Defensively, we still need to block out. We have our moments when we block out well and other moments when we don’t.

“I think those two areas in particular are going to … either make us or break us toward playoff time.”