Defensive prowess propels Jackson Indians to first conference title since 2019

The Jackson Indians girls basketball team defeated the Notre Dame Bulldogs 67-36 on Monday at Notre Dame Regional High School.

Camryn Alsdorf led the offense of the Indians with 26 points, followed by Addison Henderson with 14 and Kate Deck with 12. Skylar Craft led the Bulldogs with 11 points.

With the win, the Indians claim their first regular season conference championship since the 2018-19 season.

Notre Dame led early in the first quarter but a few threes and nine forced turnovers by Jackson earned them a 17-14 lead.

Midway through the first Jackson senior Camryn Alsdorf eclipsed the 1,000 point mark. Alsdorf said it took a lot of hard work to accomplish the feat.

“I would say training, putting in the hours and coming into practice,” Alsdorf said. “All that effort has gotten me to the point where I am today.”

The second quarter was close again as Notre Dame hit just about every shot they attempted, and Jackson could not seem to buy a bucket. Jackson forcing turnovers for easy buckets gave them a slim 29-26 lead.

Indians head coach Angela Fulton said her team can force the ball out of the opponents' hands when they are focused defensively.

“When they want to lock in defensively I think they do a very good job of shutting down their person,” Fulton said. “So, it's kind of one of those things where when we want it, we can go get it.”

Jackson came out of halftime with a huge offensive burst with threes and more easy buckets off turnovers to lead 47-30. Senior Addison Criddle gave Jackson great minutes defensively and tracking down rebounds.

“Honestly, Criddle changed the flow of the game for us coming out. She was listening at halftime when we said we needed to crash the boards,” Fulton said. “She came in and crashed and got an easy two points. It just boosted us, after that everybody started crashing better.”

Jackson continued to build its lead up to 30 points when both teams emptied their benches to end the game.

Both teams will begin play in the Class 6 District 1 tournament on Thursday. Notre Dame will play Oakville at 5 p.m. while Jackson will take on Mehlville at 6:30 p.m. both at Lindbergh High School.

Both coaches described how they match up with their opponents, with another game against each other possible.

“Mehlville is a good team. We have to do a lot of things, correction wise, cleaning up our defense and crashing the boards. If we could clean those things up, I think we'll be okay,” Fulton said.

“It will be interesting. We haven't seen any of those St. Louis schools this year, so we'll watch some film this week and try to get a game plan,” Notre Dame head coach Kirk Boeller said. “But I do expect us to come out and at least compete for four quarters on Thursday.”