King helps propel Jackson boys basketball team back to state quarterfinals

~ The Senior made back-to-back 3-pointers late in the game to help the Indians beat Lafayette

CEDAR HILL, Mo. -- Hitting a big shot in a Class 5 state sectional game has become almost natural for Jackson senior Karson King.

This time it wasn't the game-winning 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds to go, but King hit back-to-back 3s in the final minutes of Jackson's game against Lafayette to tip the momentum in favor of the Indians.

Jackson held on for a 65-60 win against the Lancers and advanced to the Class 5 quarterfinal round for the second consecutive year.

A year ago King made a 3-pointer at the end of the Indians' sectional game against Chaminade to give Jackson a two-point victory.

"Just let it fly,'" King said about those shots. "I haven't made a shot in like three months, so they're bound to go in. Some of them are bound to go in. Like I keep saying, it's all in the team. They had confidence in me.

"Like I for real have not made a shot in like three weeks, in practice or games. And they had plenty of faith in me. They kept saying, 'Shoot it.' They've been saying, 'Shoot it.' So I did and they finally went in."

King's 3s gave Jackson a 59-56 lead with 2 minutes, 38 seconds to play -- the Indians' first lead since they were up one point with 3:27 left in the first half.

"He hit one, which was big," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "And they went to that 1-3-1 and we were trying to get it to our two bigs down low, and Karson popped out. I think for the initial we talked about popping out so that we'd have an angle to feed the post, and they left him open. He hit the one and he knew he was going to make that one. … This time of year players have to make plays, and those kids -- all the kids -- I could go through a list of made plays that won the game for us."

The Indians trailed by as many as 13 with 4:47 left in the third quarter but cut it to 50-42 heading into the final eight minutes.

"We knew we were going to win from the start," King said. "But just how tough the team is ... we're down 10, 11, 12 the entire third quarter, and it just proves how tough we are, how resilient we are. It's not, 'Oh, we're down 12.' It's 'Oh, we're still in the game.' It's not 100 points, like we have a chance to come back no matter what."

Jackson senior Brandon Lueders gets over Lafayette center Zach Steinberg for a rebound during the Indians' 65-60 win over the Lancers in a Class 5 sectional Wednesday, March 12, at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill, Mo. (Adam Vogler)

The teams traded baskets to start the fourth quarter before Braden Wendel knocked down his fourth 3 of the game to cut the Lancers' lead to 54-49 with 5:38 to play.

A turnover and a couple of fouls on the Lancers allowed the Indians to make it a one-point game.

Lafayette's Nate Messer hit a pair of free throws before the two big shots by King.

The Lancers pulled ahead by one with 1:30 remaining, but Josh Daume scored and then hit a pair of free throws with 20.6 seconds remaining to give the Indians a 63-60 lead.

King missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 12.1 seconds left, and Lafayette's Cameron Scales got a tying shot off but missed. Blake Reynolds secured the rebound, was fouled and knocked down two free throws for the final score.

"We knew we just had to chip away, get stops," Wendel said. "Started getting stops, rebounds, coming together as a team and getting the shots we wanted. We were patient on offense. And more than anything we believed that we were going to come back this whole time."

Wendel played a key role in Jackson's victory. He didn't miss a shot the entire game. He was 5 for 5 from the field and 4 for 4 from 3-point range and was tasked, along with Calvin Lysell, with guarding Lafayette's leading scorer, Messer, who finished with 10 points.

"Those are the two things we challenged him, 'Hey, Braden, knock down those open shots,' because we knew they were going to sag and try to take away our bigs, and he stepped up to that challenge," Scott said. "Then the other challenge was guarding Messer. And probably the biggest key for him and Calvin was when we went man they still guarded him pretty well. They did a good job guarding him."

The Indians held Messer without a shot until about a minute to play in the first half but were unable to shut down the Lancers' offense with their box and one. Scales had 13 first-half points, and Lafayette took a 32-25 lead into the break before the Indians pulled off the come-from-behind victory.

Jackson will face CBC in a quarterfinal game at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. Jackson lost 74-66 on the road to CBC on Feb. 18.

"I think the experience of playing in that game will help them," Scott said. "You know, being focused, knowing what we need to do. I think that will help us quite a bit.

"And then I think they're hungry. They want a chance to go to the final four, and they're one game away so I know they're going to play hard on Saturday."

Jackson 13 12 17 23 – 65

Lafayette 12 20 18 10 – 60

Jackson (65) – Josh Daume 13, Karson King 22, Brandon Lueders 6, Blake Reynolds 8, Connor Shepard 2, Braden Wendel 14. FG 22, FT 14-17, F 8. (3-pointers: Daume 1, King 2, Wendel 4. Fouled out: none)

Lafayette (60) – Ross Houldsworth 4, Nate Messer 10, Cameron Scales 15, Evan Scales 14, Zach Steinberg 12, Adam Witzig 5. FG 23, FT 4-6, F 11. (3-pointers: Messer 2, C. Scales 3, E. Scales 4, Witzig 1. Fouled out: none)