<< Previous   of   Next >> For The Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Austin O'Keefe, of Jackson High School, goes for the ball against Michael Bateman, 22, right, of Shorecrest High School in a Friday night game Jan. 29 at Shorecrest High School. For The Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Mike Wishko, 40, of Jackson High School goes for the shot at Shorecrest High School.

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

Jackson regroups to beat Shorecrest

By John Boyle
For The Enterprise

SHORELINE — Even for a player possessing Brett Kingma's considerable talents, there is such a thing as a bad shot.

And for a while in the first half, Jackson's junior guard admittedly was chucking up a few of those.

But after a stern halftime lecture from Timberwolves coach Steve Johnson, Kingma settled down in the second half to score 20 of his game-high 29 points as fourth-ranked Jackson pulled away for a 61-50 Western Conference South Division victory Jan. 29 at Shorecrest.

“I felt like I came out pretty good, then I started forcing it a little bit, forced the issue,” said Kingma, who made his first four shots of the game before missing nine in a row to end the first half. “I really regrouped at halftime. I took some tough shots in the first half, but I thought I did a better job in the second half letting the game come to me. ... (Johnson) kind of ripped me a little bit, which is probably good for me. It got me going. He was just saying we took some bad shots, which I agree — we did.”

Taking better shots, Kingma hit his first three shots of the second half, and was 8-for-17 in the half as Washington State coach Ken Bone looked on from the first row of the bleachers. Kingma also had eight rebounds and three assists.

“In the second half, I took a couple of bad ones, but I felt like I let it come to me more,” said Kingma, who just missed his eighth 30-point game of the season.

Jackson (13-1 in the Wesco South, 15-1 overall) led by six after one quarter, and stretched that lead to 10 points at one point in the second, but the Scots (9-5, 10-6) ended the half on a 14-2 run to take a one-point lead into the locker room.

But after scoring 20 points in the second quarter, Shorecrest could only muster as many points in the entire second half while making just six of 21 field goal attempts. The Scots trailed by four after three quarters, but Kingma and Mike Wishko both connected on 3s to make it a 10-point game. The Scots didn't score their first basket of the fourth quarter until nearly three-and-a-half minutes elapsed.

The Scots also were hurt by nine turnovers in the first quarter and seven more in the third. Ultimately, however, it was an inability to make shots down the stretch that doomed them.

“The turnovers definitely hurt, but you're going to have those in an up-and-down game, especially against a good team like Jackson,” Shorecrest coach Brian Fischer said. “I feel like we got enough shots to beat them, but we missed a lot of easy shots. ... We got good shots, we just didn't connect.”

Jackson was playing its second straight game without second-leading scorer Ryan Todd. The senior guard suffered a concussion in last Friday's victory over Shorecrest, but Johnson said he was hopeful Todd could return for the Timberwolves' next game, which was scheduled for Tuesday at Lynnwood.

“He's looking pretty good for next week,” Johnson said. “He's going through the protocol and all of that, and he's looking really good for next week.”

Wishko finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and seven steals, and Marshall Massengale had 13 points, six rebounds, four assist and three steals for Jackson.

“It's a real good win,” Johnson said. “They've got a good team, coming into their gym, they've got some good players and one of our best guys was out. It's a real good win. We had some guys step up.”

Emmanuel Chibuogwu Jr. led the Scots with 14 points and Jordan Brown added 10 more.

John Boyle writes for The Herald.