Jackson boys basketball team loses for second time to NMCC

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Missed free throws can lose a game.

However, the Jackson boys basketball team found Friday night that misses at the charity stripe can to be even more expensive.

With a chance to remain in the driver's seat for their second outright SEMO Conference regular season title, the Indians misfired badly against New Madrid County Central. To be exact, Jackson misfired 12 times on 17 attempts from the charity stripe in the first half alone, and were left staring at that grim fact after a 74-72 loss to the Eagles.

The Indians came into the night with a seven-game winning streak and shooting 74 percent from the line.

The percentage took a hit with 15-of-32 shooting from the line (47 percent), which loomed large after Jackson dropped to 18-6 overall and 5-2 in conference play.

"We missed 17 free throws," Jackson senior Braden Wendel said. "I mean that's a free throw, something you can do on your own, and you get to the point where you shouldn't miss them. I think that was the most disappointing thing. I thought we lost it for ourselves."

The Indians came into the night as the only conference team with one loss, but now share the two-loss distinction with New Madrid County Central (20-3, 5-2) and Notre Dame with one league game remaining for each.

"They wanted to win tonight," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "I think our intensity was at the level of wanting to win. We just needed to make a few better plays early, make some free throws and then just make a few more plays down the stretch."

It may have been better had the Indians been guarded at the line. With hands in the face and moving, Jackson players connected on 57 percent (27 of 47) of their shots from the field.

The Indians missed on 3 of 5 attempts in the first quarter, which ended in a 20-20 tie, but misses became more alarming in the second quarter, where they were off the mark on 9 of 12 attempts.

"I would say those are uncharacteristic misses from the line," said junior guard Garrett Walker, who struggled to recall a time when the Indians sights were that far off. "Not since the SEMO Conference at the beginning of the year whenever we lacked a little confidence and were a little shaky. But yeah, uncharacteristic."

The woes at the line led to a 38-33 halftime deficit.

The Indians, whose five starters range in height from the 6-foot-2 Walker to 6-7 senior Blake Reynolds, also struggled at times against the full-court pressure defense by the Eagles, who had just one starter over 6 foot but made up for it with dizzying quickness.

The Eagles had upset Jackson in winning the SEMO Conference Tournament in December, and they turned the pressure up even more the second time around. While Wendel and 6-foot-5 senior Connor Shepard both finished with 18 points, Reynolds, the team's leading scorer on the season, was limited to 13 points.

"I think our size hurts them, because we're little gnats on them," New Madrid coach Travis Day said. "Sometimes it hurts big guys when they don't have nobody their size, and [Reynolds] is standing tall and we've got guys at his waist. I think that kind of bothered him. He couldn't go anywhere, because every time he put the ball on the floor, we had somebody flying at him. When we can do that to a guy of his athletic caliber and ability, that's a plus, a bonus for us."

Reynolds opened the third quarter with a conventional three-point play and the Indians put their woeful free-throw shooting behind them for the most part, hitting 6 of 7 free throws over the first four minutes of the period. A pair of free throws by junior guard Jacob Smith gave the Indians a 44-43 lead with 5 minutes, 8 seconds left in the quarter.

However, a recurring theme would play out as NMCC senior Drew Palmer answered with a 3-pointer from the left side just eight seconds later.

Jackson retaliated with a 7-0 burst to lead 51-46 with 3:35 left in the period, but Eagles junior Chris Farr broke the silence with a 3 from the top of the key to commence an 11-2 run over the remainder of the quarter.

The Indians committed four turnovers on their final seven possessions of the period and missed two more free throws. Their lone points over the final three-and-a-half minutes belonged to Walker.

Smith scored nine of his 11 points of the game during the third quarter after sitting out time earlier in the game due to foul trouble.

"In the first half he wasn't guarding Willie [Jimerson] like we wanted him and he got into foul trouble, and he sits for quite a bit in that first half, and in that third quarter he had a chance to get his head right and play like he has been playing at times for us," Scott said. "Because when he plays that well, that makes us just that much better."

NMCC took a 57-53 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Indians pulled even on a drive by Walker and a follow-up basket by Wendel after a miss by Walker at the 6:20 mark.

However, the Eagles took the lead for good on their next trip down the floor on a 3-pointer from the left corner by Palmer. It was his third of four 3-pointers on the night. He finished with 14 points.

He was the counter balance to Jimerson, a driving type guard who finished with 21 points, and 6-foot-4 Asten Newsom, who also finished with 21 points -- virtually all deep in the paint or a result of being fouled under the basket.

"Palmer, we talked about having to close out hard on him and not have him take shots, but Willie is hard to keep out of the paint, and whenever Palmer's on and not missing they're hard to guard," Walker said.

The Eagles made 6 of 9 shots from the field -- including 2 of 3 from behind the arc for Palmer -- in the fourth quarter in building a 71-63 lead with 1:27 left.

"They just made some big shots when they needed to kind of either keep the game close when we got a little lead or to kind of pull their lead away midway through the fourth," Scott said.

The Indians still trailed by eight points with under a minute left when they made one final surge, forcing three consecutive turnovers with full-court pressure and scoring after each. Jacob Friess made two free throws after the first turnover, Reynolds scored on a three-point play after the second and Shepard grabbed the third turnover under the basket and laid it in with 26 seconds left to cut the deficit to 71-70.

Jimerson was fouled on the ensuing possession and extended the lead to 73-70 with a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left.

The Indians attempted to tie the score on a 3-point shot by Shepard with 8 seconds left, but his open look from the right side banged off the rim and the Eagles controlled the rebound. Jimerson was fouled and added a free throw before Shepard scored on a tip-in at the buzzer.

The Indians return to action this Friday when they travel to Kennett for their conference finale. They then conclude their regular season when St. Francis Borgia visits Feb. 24.

Notre Dame concludes its conference season by hosting Dexter, and NMCC will play its conference finale at home this against Sikeston this week.

"We can't win it outright," Wendel said. "We go down to Kennett and try to win that one, so we can at least split it. Maybe we'll get lucky and New Madrid will drop their next game. We know we can't control that any more at this point, so it's a little upsetting, but there's nothing we can do about it."

New Madrid County Central 74, Jackson 72

Jackson 20 13 20 19 -- 72

NMCC 20 18 19 17 -- 74

JACKSON (72) -- Cameron Hester 4, Braden Wendel 18, Connor Shepard 18, Blake Reynolds 13, Jacob Friess 2, Garrett Walker 6, Jacob Smith 11. FG 27, FT 15-32, F 15 (3-pointers: Wendel 2, Reynolds. Fouled out: none)

NEW MADRID COUNTY CENTRAL (74) -- Willie Jimerson 21, Mikael Walker 2, Kiel Causey 3, Javarcus Word 6, Chris Farr 3, Drew Palmer 14, Asten Newsom 21, Vontre Jones 4 . FG 26, FT 15-20, F 24 (3-pointers: Causey, Word, Farr, Palmer 4 . Fouled out: Walker)