2023 Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Jackson rallies, claws past Charleston in semifinal thriller

Falling into an early lead, Jackson’s hopes at a Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament championship hit a harsh chord with a 12-point deficit in the second quarter.

But with an unparalleled momentum swing between the second and third quarters, Jackson rallied to a 63-58 win over the Charleston Blue Jays to advance to the championship game for the third consecutive year.

“It was a matter of time,” Indians coach Kory Thoma said. “We got good looks in the first quarter. We executed, we just weren't making shots.

“At halftime, I went in and I challenged him. ‘Hey, we're down by four, and it can't get any worse.’ They came out in the second half and dominated, so I'm super proud.”

Jackson grabbed the game’s first lead, but an ensuing 11-0 run gave the Blue Jays a strong edge just minutes into the contest and put the Indians on their heels fast.

Ko’Terrion Owens’ deep, deep 3-pointer at the horn smacked off the backboard and rattled in to put Charleston up 16-7 after the game’s first eight minutes, putting Jackson in a deep hole early.

That run continued into the second, with the Blue Jays mounting a 21-9 lead after the quarter’s first few minutes. But, after a Charleston timeout, Jackson made its own big 11-0 run to cut the gap immensely before an Owen Willis 3-pointer.

After trailing by as many as 12, Jackson trailed just 26-22 to Charleston as the Indians managed to get behind the Blue Jays’ tough defense and got some big transition points.

Two of those transition points came on Kole Deck’s violent fastbreak jam, which largely changed the flow of the game.

“All it takes is one play to flip the momentum,” Deck said. “That dunk, I felt like we flipped it. If we’ve got the momentum, more shots are gonna go in, for sure.”

Jackson opened the half on an 8-1 run to finally retake the lead, but Charleston kept its hat in the ring with some big buckets from Owens, but the Indians’ lead grew to four points after Deck hit his second triple in the first three minutes of the second half.

Owens and teammate Deshaun Henderson have become a widely-feared post tandem as the two Blue Jays have rolled over nearly everybody this season.

However, matched against Jackson’s height, the Indians kept themselves in the game with a tough post defense that forced Charleston into a number of turnovers and bad shots.

“Those guys played well tonight,” Thoma said. “Again, like against Oak Ridge, I got really good minutes out of Braden Thompson and Lee Ivy tonight.”

Holding that pace, Jackson continued to grow its lead but exited the third quarter with just a 45-40 lead after Charleston guard Tayshon Clark’s and-1 near the death.

Both teams got some big shots to fall in the fourth, with Deck’s triple intercepting a pair of 3-pointers from both Zachyran Thomas and later Owens dropping in one of his own.

Charleston’s rowdy ride from zero to five team fouls sent Deck to the line with 43 seconds left, hitting the pair and solidifying Jackson’s late lead as the Indians survived a Charleston rally to come up with a 63-58 victory and advance to the championship game.

Kole Deck led the Indians in scoring with a game-high 32 of their 63 points, with Braedon Thoma and Judd Thoma making fellow double-digit scoring contributions in the dub.

Meanwhile, for the Blue Jays, the pair of bigs played a critical role in their scoring output as primetime Most Valuable Player-candidate Ko’Terrion Owens dropped in 25 points for Charleston while teammates Tayshon Clark (10) and Deshaun Henderson (9) made big contributions.

Back in the championship game for the third time in as many years, the Indians are set for a big matchup with archrival Cape Central in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament championship game, set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night.

Cape Central has won all but one matchup with the Jackson Indians in the past eight years, and the Tigers typically haven’t had much of an issue putting away the Indians even in tournament play.

Thoma is aware of this, but he’ll look to upend a highly talented Tiger team on Saturday night on the backs of his stellar defense and some newfound scoring talent.

“We're excited, obviously, to be in the championship game on Saturday night,” Thoma began.

“Drew Church has done a really good job with that crew. They’re playing excellent defense. They're unselfish players, they’re – they're just really good. There are five or six kids that he's got that he rotates in that are about as good as you can get.

“It's gonna be a challenge.”

__NO. 2 JACKSON 63, NO. 3 CHARLESTON 58__

Charleston 16 10 14 18 — 58

Jackson 7 15 23 18 — 63

Jackson (63) — Kole Deck 32, Braedon Thoma 11, Judd Thoma 10, Gavin Holdman 4, Braden Thompson 4, Jackson Shock 2. FG: 23. (3-pointers: Deck 4, Thoma 1)

Charleston (58) — Ko’Terrion Owens 25, Tayshon Clark 10, Deshaun Henderson 9, Zachyran Thomas 7, Owen Willis 7. FG: 23. (3-pointers: Owens 2, Clark 1, Thomas 1, Willis 1)