West Jessamine senior Heath Jackson applauded his team as the final seconds ticked away in the Colts' win over Pulaski County on Thursday. (Photo by Jonathan Stark/jstark@jessaminejournal.com / March 1, 2012) |
West Jessamine exacted a measure of revenge Thursday night in its 73-66 win over Pulaski County in the quarterfinals of the 12th Region tournament. It was just over two weeks ago that Pulaski beat West 90-85 in overtime.
“We played very well. We played smart, the smartest we played all year. That’s the best job we’ve done all year,” West Jessamine coach Damon Kelley said. “We took care of the basketball, and we’re going to win a lot of close games when we shoot 30-for-35 from the free-throw line. I’m proud of the kids; they played well. We can enjoy it tonight; tomorrow we’ve got to get focused on Southwestern.”
Kelley said the biggest difference in Thursday’s win and the loss a few weeks ago was the Colts finishing plays and taking care of the ball down the stretch.
In what was a home game for the Maroons, West held a lead throughout most of the night. The Colts were up 58-48 heading into the fourth quarter before Pulaski made a run with the help of five three-pointers in the period.
The first three-pointer brought Pulaski within eight points with just over seven minutes left. A quick turnover by West led to another trey for the Maroons, and it was suddenly a five-point game with 6:44 remaining.
Turnovers have plagued West this season. The Colts committed 21 turnovers in their lost to East Jessamine in the district championship. However, West was taking particularly good care of the ball against Pulaski, committing just eight turnovers in the first three quarters of the game.
With the lead down to five, West pushed it back to eight by splitting its next six free-throw attempts over the next two minutes. But when Pulaski needed it most, the Maroons hit a three-pointer. Another three at the 4:16 mark brought Pulaski to within five again at 64-59.
West’s offense was beginning to sputter as it had made only 1-of-4 shot attempts during the quarter. The Colts were doing all of their damage on the offensive end by penetrating and getting to the line while at the same time racking up fouls on Pulaski players.
Pulaski’s fourth three-pointer of the quarter made it 64-62 with three minutes remaining. Another miss on the offensive end and a foul on Chase Fain sent Pulaski to the line with a chance to tie the game. The first free throw was good but the second missed, keeping the lead in West’s hands with 2:43 remaining.
West kept getting to the foul line on the offensive end, and their free throws began to fall. Fain converted four in a row to push the lead back out to five points with 1:44 remaining, but Pulaski’s fifth trey of the quarter quieted West fans for a brief moment.
The Colts and Maroons traded misses from the floor, and Heath Jackson came up with a huge rebound with 43 seconds remaining. He was then fouled and converted a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game. Pulaski finally missed a three-pointer and Fain collected the rebound, went to the free-throw line and split a pair to make it a five-point game again with 30 seconds remaining.
Jackson came up with yet another key defensive rebound, his sixth of the game, and went to the line for two more free throws, which he sank with ease. The senior was a perfect 11-for-11 from the line on the night and led the team in points with 21 and had six rebounds.
“Phenomenal. Phenomenal. (Jackson) comes off the bench — I could tell early on he was going to play well tonight; he’s one of the those guys that can give us a big spark, and he did tonight,” Kelley said. “He took the ball to the rim with confidence and finished plays.”
West Jessamine was just 1-for-7 from the field in the fourth quarter but 13-for-17 from the free-throw line in the period. On the night, the Colts were 30-for-35 from the free-throw line and forced four Pulaski players to foul out.
“We kept going at them because we knew they’d be hesitant to challenge shots,” Kelley said. “Neither of us are really deep, and I was worried foul trouble might be an issue for us, but it affected them more than it did us.”
Fain scored 14 points, collected eight rebounds had three assists; Will Henderson scored 10 points; and Robby Irgang was huge on the defensive side with four steals and a block.
Ball security was huge for West, especially in the fourth quarter. The Colts committed just two turnovers in the final eight minutes and had 10 for the game.
West trailed through most of the first period before taking a lead in the final two minutes. The Maroons and Pulaski battled back and fourth during the second period, but it was West that held a 36-31 lead at halftime. The Colts pushed the lead to as many as 12 points in the third quarter.
“I’m happy for the kids. We’ve been getting better as a basketball team the last couple of weeks,” Kelley said. “When the draw came out Saturday, everybody said, ‘Wow, you’ve got a tough draw,’ and we did.”
West Jessamine will face Southwestern on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Pulaski County. The Colts lost at Southwestern 79-50 on Jan. 24.
“(Southwestern) is good. We played them a few weeks back and got spanked pretty good,” Kelley said. “I watched them tonight, and they’re so big and so long — we’ve got a major task ahead of us. But we’re going to come out, give it our best shot and see what happens.”
