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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Jackson pulls away from Marysville-Pilchuck

Timberwolves eager for rematch with Wildcats

By David Pan
Enterprise Sports editor

MARYSVILLE

Jackson weathered a Marysville-Pilchuck comeback and secured an eagerly anticipated rematch with Oak Harbor.

Freshman center Kristen Stoffel scored five points during a key stretch in the fourth quarter and junior guard Erin Feeney connected on six free throws in the final minute to lift the Timberwolves to a 55-49 victory over the Tomahawks in a 4A loser-out District 1 girls basketball tournament game Feb. 25 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

Jackson takes on Oak Harbor in a winner-to-state/loser-out game at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 27, at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. The Wildcats upset the South Division's No. 1 seed 52-51 in a first-round game last week.

"We are going to have to come out and really want it more than them," Feeney said.

Jackson coach Jeanne Thompson describe the loss to the Wildcats as one of the most painful she's experienced as a coach.

"They played a great game. They executed down the stretch and we didn't," Thompson said. "There were a lot of little things we look back on and we definitely had the opportunity to take that game. Our kids know that they could have played better the first time around. They're excited they have a chance at redemption. We're going to try and use that as motivation."

The Wolfpack jumped out to a 14-9 first quarter lead over Marysville-Pilchuck and extended its advantage to 30-22 at halftime. Marysville-Pilchuck, however, stormed back in the third quarter to tie the score at 39 as the teams headed for the final period. A turnaround jumper by Britt Harris gave the Tomahawks a 41-40 lead with just under six minutes left in the game.

Jackson responded with a pair of free throws and a bank shot by Stoffel and a basket by junior Chanel Sam to take a 46-41 lead.

Marysville closed the gap to 47-45 on two free throws and a turnaround jumper by Harris with 1:55 remaining.

Sam then scored a putback basket to boost the lead to 49-45 with 1:27 remaining. Feeney followed up with four straight free throws to extend the Jackson advantage to 53-45 with 39.9 seconds left. She later added two more free throws.

"This was a big game for us," Feeney said. "We had to battle really hard. They're a really aggressive team and we just had to just battle through their aggressiveness."

Feeney probably was the last player Marysville-Pilchuck wanted to see on the foul line.

"We were fortunate that we were able to inbounds the ball to her," Thompson said. "She's an 80 percent free throw shooter. So to be able to put the ball in her hands at the end of the game, it gave us a lot of confidence that she could cushion that small lead that we had because it wasn't very big."

Feeney led Jackson with 19 points, while Sam and Stoffel scored 15 and 13 points, respectively. Harris scored a team-high 15 points.

Thompson decided to switch to a zone defense in the fourth quarter instead of going with the usual man-to-man scheme and the change produced four straight turnovers.

"We're a man-to-man team. That's been our thing all year," Thompson said. "But in this situation we had to go with matchups and we were just hoping that we could slow down that tempo. ... We haven't practiced our zone in a long time.

"Our girls, I thought, did a really nice job on the fly, executing it, finding their shooters, finding their post players. They forced some big turnovers."

Thompson also liked the backbone she saw from her players when they fell behind the Tomahawks.

"We kept our composure," Thompson said. "A lot of times when teams come back like they did and take the lead, the other teams can fold. I thought our girls did a really nice job of not folding and succumbing to that run that they went on. Instead we came back with a run of our own."