Jackson stifles late Oakville rally

ST. LOUIS -- The Jackson boys basketball team entered the fourth quarter of Friday night's Class 5 District 1 championship with a 14-point lead over host Oakville.

But junior Karson King and his teammates had a feeling the Tigers would make a run.

"Hey, we knew it was coming," King said following the Indians' 58-52 win. "We kept saying, 'It's coming, it's coming, it's coming.' But we just held it off there at the end, got a couple big rebounds. He missed that layup ..."

King let his voice trail off with that last sentence, instead allowing a big exhale convey his thoughts.

Oakville's Tristan Buckhaulter had a shot with 1 minute, 24 seconds remaining that would have given the Tigers their first lead since starting the game with a 6-0 lead, but missed. That helped end a 10-2 run for Oakville, which was aided by two Jackson turnovers and an offensive foul.

"Just keep your composure," said King when asked how the team regrouped. "We deserve to win this game, so win it. It sounds simple."

King made two free throws on Jackson's subsequent possession, and the Indians' held Oakville to one missed shot on its next two possessions while making 3 of 4 free throws to secure the victory.

"It feels great," sophomore Blake Reynolds said. "We've been working for this all year, all summer, all fall -- just all the off-season work we did paid off. Throughout the game we kept saying that. We kept saying that to each other, kept pushing each other saying all this work is going to pay off, and it finally did."

The Indians answered Oakville's 6-0 start with a 17-0 run of their own and allowed the Tigers to score just one more point in the opening quarter.

"They came out with a lot of energy," Reynolds said. "They came out ecstatic, and we weren't ready for it. We weren't ready for all that energy, but we really bounced back well, handled it well and were able to get back in it and get a big lead."

King was dominant offensively in the first half, racking up 17 points to help Jackson take a 32-20 lead into halftime.

"He was really ready to play," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "You could tell before the game started. We stopped for a little shoot around in Arnold, went to their rec center, and he was focused and you could tell he was going to have a big game."

His big first half prompted a change in Oakville's tactics.

"They went to a box-and-one on him," Scott said. "We still got him the ball some and got the ball to the other bigs, so I was really happy with that because when a team changes up like that, it can make it tough. On the fly, you've got to make an adjustment."

King, who finished with 24 points, made a jumper to score Jackson's first points of the third quarter, then didn't score again until there was 3:55 left in the game.

Reynolds took over for a stretch of the third quarter, scoring seven consecutive points for the Indians.

He grabbed an offensive rebound and scored, then received a pass from King for an easy layup before completing a three-point play after being fouled while putting back another offensive rebound.

For good measure, he found teammate Braden Wendel for an easy layin on Jackson's next possession.

"Early he wasn't used to playing against a 6-11 kid," Scott said. "We see teams do that to us sometimes. They're not used to playing against size, and they get shot-blocked and it's kind of an 'awe factor' at first. I think that's what happened to him. He tried to make a move and all sudden he's getting shot-blocked and that doesn't happen very often. He adjusted after that and did a great job."

The "6-11 kid" was Oakville junior Austin Gillmann, officially listed at 6-foot-10. He had 16 points, but leading scorer Ervin Sarajlic was held to just four points and fouled out.

"I thought we really did a great job with the game plan of taking away Gillmann's left shoulder, doubling him with the right guys, getting out on [Sarajlic]," Scott said. "I thought that was huge. Ervin, when they played well, he scored a lot for them, so that was a point of emphasis for us to take him out. I thought Braxton McDowell and Calvin Lysell did a great job of really trying to take him out of offense."

Guarding Gillmann led to foul trouble for the Indians' interior players. Junior Brandon Lueders fouled out 14 seconds into the fourth quarter, and Reynolds was called for his fourth foul 36 seconds later.

"In the second half we were hodge-podging lineups together quite often," Scott said.

Jackson did that in the first half as well and still managed to close the half on a 9-2 run. Senior Skyler Steele had four points during the run, including two that came because of his own steal.

"Speaking of that, that's why Skyler Steele was huge tonight, because in that second quarter he had to come in and we're small," Scott said. "That was huge because when he came in, in that stretch we've got nobody over 6-4 to guard Gillmann, and we went on a 6- or 7-0 run. Steele made two or three good plays, Braden Wendel made a shot -- that was huge. That was a huge part of the game right there."

Jackson (18-10) will face Chaminade in the sectional round at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill, Mo.

"I'm really happy that our boys and girls were able to win, so that'll be neat," Scott said. "They'll get to have some time at school to kind of soak that in. Wednesday will be neat because they're both playing."

Oakville 7 13 14 18 -- 52

Jackson 17 15 16 10 -- 58

OAKVILLE (52) -- Tristan Buckhaulter 2, Carvon Robinson 8, Michael Munsell 8, Ervin Sarajlic 4, Hayden Trout 2, Thomas Breunig 12, Austin Gillmann 16. FG 16, FT 19-23, F 21. (3-pointers: Robinson 1, Breunig 1, Gillmann 1. Fouled out: Sarajlic)

JACKSON (58) -- Josh Daume 5, Braxton McDowell 5, Calvin Lysell 1, Braden Wendel 7, Skyler Steele 7, Karson King 24, Blake Reynolds 9. FG 20, FT 13-21, F 22. (3-pointers: Daume 1, McDowell 1, Wendel 1, King 2. Fouled out: Brandon Lueders)