Jackson girls break out early, rout Perryville in Sunday FSCB quarterfinal tilt

Making its First State Community Bank Holiday Classic debut in the quarterfinals, Jackson girls basketball routed a talented Perryville team 58-19 on Sunday afternoon to advance in stride to the semifinals on Wednesday night.

Opening the game with an 8-point lead within the first two minutes, it didn’t take long for the top-seeded Indians to assert their dominance as they stacked up a huge lead on the No. 8 Pirates and rarely relented.

The Indians, running a rotation that keeps them constantly subbing out seemingly every dead ball, had legs so fresh they rarely needed to lean off the press, and that resulted in so many errors for Perryville that the Pirates at many times couldn’t even make it into their sets.

“We have so much depth,” Indians coach Angela Fulton said. “I feel like when girls are out there, they give it their all, and they know when they leave it on the court that we have five, six more that can come in and fill that.”

That, and its 3-point barrage gave Jackson the edge on Sunday, sometimes going on shooting slumps but never afraid to let it fly as the Indians sunk seven triples in the victory to put Perryville on the fringe.

Shooting depth, aside from just regular depth, is but one of many things that’s made Jackson the running favorite to win this tournament, and the Indians looked every bit of that on Sunday.

“It just goes to show how deep we are,” Fulton said. “I think we look for each other very well, inside and outside.

“Perryville today clogged up the middle, and we knew we would have to adjust, so we did.
I thought the girls all stepped up.”

The win keeps Jackson undefeated on the year, now 7-0 for the season, running away with the title of the “Team To Beat” in Southeast Missouri this season — for the moment.

Kate Deck led the Indians with 14 points in the victory, 12 of those coming on 3-pointers while Camryn Alsdorf added 9 points behind her to place second among the victors.

Perryville drops to 2-4 for the season with the loss, having played a full slate of great teams early this year and still trying to catch its winning stride.

Caroline Gremaud led Perryville scorers with 7 points in the loss, while Aby Amberger’s 6 points finished second.

Perryville drops into the fifth-place bracket beginning Tuesday at the Show Me Center, while Jackson advances to a Wednesday semifinal against either No. 4 Woodland or No. 5 Scott County Central.

The tournament, which Jackson has long anchored, is up to a 16-team field this year and is undoubtedly deeper than it’s ever been before, which makes it an exciting time to participate for the Indians as a championship potentially looms on the horizon.

“There's great talent, great teams in the tournament,” Fulton said. “Just be able to go up against them, I think it’s an awesome experience.

“We'll enjoy this one, come back tomorrow, practice and correct the things that we have to correct and take it one day at a time.”

It took less than two minutes for Perryville coach Jason Dreyer to call his first timeout of the game, with Jackson quickly forcing a handful of turnovers to build an 8-0 lead inside the first 100 seconds.

Whatever adjustments he made, they clearly worked as in the final six minutes of the first, the Indians scored just 8 points, going into the second quarter with a 16-2 lead largely hinging on smothering on-ball defense.

The second quarter gave way to a much more balanced, and efficient, scoring effort for Jackson. The Indians got to the line consistently, while the Pirates managed to generate more offensive opportunities after breaking the Indian press, including a Caroline Gremaud 3-pointer.

Leading 35-9 at the half, Jackson had already gone up major against the Pirates, but continued to apply pressure even with a deep rotation in, going up 55-15 going into the final quarter with the running clock on their side.

Neither team did too much in the fourth, as the rotations put up just 7 combined points in the fourth quarter under the turbo clock, finishing in a 58-19 final to send Jackson into the semifinals.