GATEWAY FALLS FOR JACKSON REVERSE; LADY INDIANS REACH 4A FINAL WITH 41-33 WIN

COLUMBIA -- It wasn't supposed to happen this way, but luckily for the Jackson Lady Indians it did.

Jackson, ranked third in the state, advanced into the Class 4A championship game for the third straight year with a 41-33 victory over top-ranked Gateway Tech Friday morning at the Hearnes Center.

How they did it is where things get a little tricky.

In a bizarre case of role reversal, Jackson's all-state guard Christa Millham watched from the bench as her teammates rallied from a seven-point third-quarter deficit. Junior Jamie Heitz, normally relegated to cheering her team to victory from the bench, drilled consecutive 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter that put Jackson ahead for good 30-25..

"Today, I just had a good day," said Heitz, who came into the game with a total of nine 3-pointers and a 3.4 scoring average. "I felt like I gave the team a boost when it needed it."

Heitz totaled 10 points and junior Chrissi Glastetter added a team-leading 11 points and nine rebounds as Jackson knocked off its second top-ranked opponent this season. On Jan. 17, the Lady Indians beat 3A No.1 Rosary 59-45.

Gateway, which beat Jackson in last year's championship game 42-41, saw a 55-game win streak against Missouri opponents end. The Lady Jaguars fell to 27-3.

Jackson, now 26-2, will face West Plains (28-3) for the 4A title today at 12:20 p.m. The Zizzers beat Truman (24-6) 49-27 in the other 4A semifinal Friday morning.

"The girls did a good job as a team," said Jackson coach Ron Cook. "We had some girls come off the bench -- Jamie (Heitz) and (freshman) Andrea Koeper -- and do a fantastic job helping us out. It was a team effort."

Millham, who wore a black knee wrap to protect a ligament injury she sustained in practice earlier in the week, came out of the contest with 2:09 left in the third quarter and Gateway ahead 23-16. The 5-foot-10 Millham, who came in averaging 16 points a game, had been held to just two at that point. She ended with eight points.

"I had a hard time getting the ball sometimes," said Millham, "but everybody else took control and did a good job."

With its top player off the court, the Lady Indians closed out the final two minutes with a 6-0 run to trail 23-22 entering the fourth quarter. Glastetter sparked the rally with a 3-pointer and then came up with a steal which led to another 3-pointer by senior Dana Eakins.

"We all knew we had to step up and help Christa out," said Glastetter. "There's a little more pressure to play well when Christa's out of the game, but I think we all stepped up and played really well."

A driving jumper in the lane by Glastetter to open the final period gave Jackson its first lead at 24-23 since early in the second quarter.

Gateway answered with a basket from its top player, Christan Shelton, to regain the lead 25-24. Then Heitz went to work.

The 5-foot-9 junior dropped in two straight 3-pointers about a minute apart to give Jackson a 30-25 lead with 5:49 left.

"Jamie's playing like she did last year when she shot the three's real good," said Jackson coach Ron Cook. "She's struggled a little bit this year, but she came through today."

Gateway coach Sherman Curtis knew the Lady Indians had a stronger bench than his coming into the contest, but the 11-2 scoring spurt while Millham was out of the game was a surprise to him.

"I knew it was Jackson (scoring), but I was wondering who it was (scoring)," Curtis said. "I knew they go about nine deep. They found someone else that can play the game and they stepped up and will grow from that."

Said Cook: "We knew they were going to concentrate on Christa so the other girls had to pick it up."

Millham returned with 5:54 left and, including Heitz's final 3-pointer, the Lady Indians went on a 10-0 scoring run to open up a nine-point advantage with 3:41 remaining. Koeper, a 5-9 freshman, got involved during that span with a steal and coast-to-coast layup to make the score 32-25. Millham added a layup to end the run with Jackson ahead 34-25.

Gateway battled back to make the score 34-29, but after struggling from the free-throw line for most of the game, the Lady Indians made their final four free throws to seal the victory.

Free throws weren't the only things Jackson struggled with. The Lady Indians shot just 22 percent from the field in the first half (4 of 18) and trailed 13-12 at halftime.

"At breakfast I said the score might be 12-9 at halftime," Curtis said. "I figured it was going to start out slow because of the early morning (start)."

The 9:15 a.m. tip-off also appeared to hamper Gateway's shooting touch in the first half. The Lady Jaguars missed all 11 of their first-quarter shots as Jackson took a 7-2 lead.

Shelton scored a game-high 12 points for Gateway and sophomore Tara Harris added 11 points. Gateway shot just 41 percent from the field (12 of 38) and committed 15 turnovers. The Lady Jaguars forced 17 Jackson turnovers.

Five of nine shooting from behind the 3-point arc in the second half lifted Jackson's overall field goal percentage for the game to 36 percent (14 of 39).

Said Millham: "The law of averages says one of them is going to go in so we just kept shooting."