Wolfpack makes history with win over M-P

Published 11:27 am Monday, March 3, 2008

MARYSVILLE — The chant started early and was repeated throughout the night.

“You can’t stop her. You can’t stop her.”

The Jackson student section clearly saw who was the difference in last week’s winner-to-state/loser-out 4A District 1 girls basketball tournament game between the Wolfpack and Marysville-Pilchuck.

Sophomore guard Kristi Kingma put on a dazzling show, scoring a game-high 26 points to lead the Timberwolves to a 57-54 victory over the Tomahawks March 3 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

The victory enabled Jackson to claim its first state girls basketball berth in school history.

Kingma was typically modest about her performance and praised her teammates.

“Anybody could have done that,” Kingma said. “Just from the very beginning I knew that if we were going to state I was going to have to step up my game. As long as we went, I could care less about how many I scored.

“Yeah, I played a good game, but my teammates were the ones that got me the ball. So you have to give all the credit to them.”

Jackson coach Jeannie Thompson had no problem hailing Kingma’s performance.

“She’s a tremendous young player,” the third-year coach said. “We’ve been watching her for two seasons. I’m thankful she’s a sophomore and we’ll have her back for two more years. She’s a great floor leader. She reads the defense really well. She runs the offense very well and gets her teammates involved.”

The Jackson boys basketball team also earned a berth to state with its victory over Meadowdale earlier that night.

The victory helped energize the girls basketball team.

“With the boys going it was just such good inspiration from the beginning,” Kingma said.

The talk before the game was “the boys won … let’s go get another,” Thompson added.

Jackson took the lead from the opening tipoff and only trailed for one brief moment in the second quarter when Marysville-Pilchuck had a 17-15 advantage. The Timberwolves then outscored the Tomahawks 15-4 to take a 30-21 halftime lead.

Kingma scored 19 of her 26 points in the first half. Sophomore guard Ashly Bruns was the only other Jackson player in double figures with 13 points for the night.

The Timberwolves built on their nine-point halftime lead extending it to as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter. Marysville-Pilchuck closed the gap somewhat but still trailed by eight points with just over 30 seconds left in the game. A 3-pointer by Marysville-Pilchuck senior guard Amanda Dunbar cut the final margin to 57-54.

The Wolfpack wanted to avoid the sluggish second-half start that occurred in its previous game against Mountlake Terrace.

“We didn’t want to start that way tonight,” Kingma said. “We just played with so much heart from the beginning.”

The Timberwolves refocused in the locker room at halftime.

“We just needed to step it up,” Bruns said. “We needed to have heart and confidence and integrity … we had heart and we had confidence and we pulled through.”

Kingma drew the assignment of guard Dunbar, who finished with a game-high 28 points. The Marysville-Pilchuck standout only had two 3-pointers. Teammate Sarah Gribler scored 13 points.

“We needed to stop Dunbar,” Thompson said. “Dunbar is a great shooter. We had to keep our hands up on her and keep her from hitting the 3-point shot. Kristi did a great job of doing that tonight. We also needed to control Sarah Gribler inside. She got loose a little more than we liked, especially in the latter part of the game.”

In the second half, the Tomahawks went to a box-and-one defense in which a player shadowed Kingma on defense. When Kingma got the ball, another player often rotated to double-team her, which meant that another Jackson player was left unguarded.

“Michelle Addington, Ashly Bruns, Ashley Todd, they all stepped up and hit some big shots … that pulled them out of the box-and-one, which (allowed) us to go back into our regular offense,” Thompson said.

“Everyone just picks it up when they need to,” Bruns added.

Thompson also had Bruns play point guard in the second half.

“We knew that we had another ball handler that we were extremely confident in and that could set up our plays,” Thompson said.

The prospect of having two teams advance to state had the entire school abuzz with excitement.

“It’s just so amazing,” Kingma said. “Everybody is cheering for us. We had amazing fan support … it’s just a fun thing to be a part of.”

Jackson defeated Marysville-Pilchuck in a first round district game on Feb. 21. The Tomahawks upset Wesco North Division co-champion Snohomish to advance to the consolation finals.

“Knowing that they had beat them a week ago gave them a lot of confidence,” Thompson said. “Coming in here knowing that they’ve done it once. We can step up and do it again.”

That confidence actually stretches back to the start of the season. The goal at the start of the year was to make it to the state tournament.

Jackson had its first opportunity to secure a state berth against Lake Stevens in the semifinals but lost 56-42. The Wolfpack then rebounded to edge Mountlake Terrace 54-53.

“It was almost like it was our destiny to go (to state),” Thompson said. “The girls felt it from the beginning of the season that we had a shot to be here and once we got into that position, we got all the nerves out against Lake Stevens. We knew once we were here every opportunity was going to go our way.”