Jackson boys basketball team loses grip on SEMO Conference crown

~ Charleston upended Jackson 66-62 to remain unbeaten in SEMO Conference play

Jackson senior Karson King has faced the Charleston Bluejays plenty of times in his three-year varsity career. But he's never seen them do what they did at the end of the game Saturday afternoon.

"Honestly, I was very surprised," King said. "I mean we've never really played Charleston that close, but I've never seen them hold the ball for more than 20 seconds on offense."

The Bluejays made their narrow lead stand with the help of a considerably slower pace than usual in the closing minutes to beat Jackson 66-62 in a pivotal SEMO Conference matchup. Jackson (19-4) could have sealed at least a share of the conference title with a win and been in control of its chances to win the title outright. Now the Indians will have to beat Kennett and hope Charleston loses to either Poplar Bluff or Central -- or both -- to be the regular-season champions. The conference does not use a head-to-head tiebreaker to determine a champion.

"We talk about that," Charleston coach Danny Farmer said. "We knew going in if we win this game we would be in the driver's seat -- undefeated in first by ourself with two more games left. We also knew they hadn't lost to a team in Southeast Missouri, so we put emphasis on that, and it made us want to achieve something. It motivates the kids and makes them want to achieve something."

Jackson's Blake Reynolds (32), Karson King (24), Josh Daume (1) and Brandon Lueders (33) wait for the second half to start against Charleston Saturday, Feb. 15, at Charleston High School. (Chris Pobst photo)

Farmer took a timeout with 4 minutes, 57 seconds left in the game and his team leading 56-53 with possession of the ball. Charleston spread the court and passed the ball around for about a minute before Jackson's Blake Reynolds deflected a pass to force a turnover. King, who finished with a game-high 23 points, converted a layin on the other end with 3:45 to go, but the Indians missed their next eight shots while Charleston continued to take its time on offense.

"They did a good job of it," King said. "It's not like they didn't know what they were doing. It did surprise me. I really don't know what to say about it right now even. It was tough. They spread us out, and they found the open man for the layups. They did a good job."

Charleston's Micheal Kellum made a 3-pointer on his team's next possession and the Bluejays made 7 of 8 free throws over the next four possessions to open up a 66-55 lead with 49.5 seconds to go.

"Give Charleston credit," said Jackson coach Darrin Scott, who wasn't surprised by the tactic. "I thought they played really well. For us, our biggest thing is when a game's close down the stretch maybe if we could've come up with one more 50-50 ball, got one more offensive rebound, maybe just one or two plays. We had a couple good looks at good shots that could've went in but were in and out. Those didn't, so we needed to make one or two of those other plays to stay in it.

"At the same time you've got to give them credit because they spread the floor and some kids that we were kind of helping off hit big shots. Kellum and Robert Bogan -- they hit two big 3s when they needed them. You've got to give them credit. When players step up and they hit bit shots like that in those situations ... one of them was really contested."

Bogan's 3-pointer came with 5:13 left and was an immediate reply to Jackson's Braden Wendel knotting the score at 53.

Neither team gained much separation throughout the game. Charleston held the biggest lead when it went up 21-12 with 6:42 left in the second quarter. The Bluejays were on a 13-2 run at that time that was aided by seven Jackson turnovers during that span.

"We wanted to keep pressure on their dribblers, their guards and make sure they have a difficult time trying to pass it to the bigs," Farmer said. "If we stay up in the guards and they put it on the floor, they're going to have to watch out for us stealing the ball or knocking it away, and that'll make them panic a little bit when they throw it into the bigs, so they don't have a good pass. They threw it away a few times, so it worked. If we got off them and just let them throw it to the bigs, they're going to kill us."

Jackson recovered to take a 28-27 lead into halftime. The Indians led 46-44 to start the fourth after 6-foot-8 senior Brandon Lueders scored eight points in the third. Lueders, though, was forced to the bench when the Bluejays slowed the pace.

"It took Blake and Brandon out of the paint, and it even took Brandon out of the game," King said. "Brandon had a big third quarter for us and then we had to take Brandon out because obviously Brandon's not going to be as quick as the man he was guarding. I think he was guarding [Demontrail Clark]. He's not going to be guarding him so, which Calvin [Lysell] -- he came in really good at defense. But if we can have Brandon at the rim putting his hands up against those 6-foot guards, we'll definitely take that. They pretty much just took us out of our element."

The Indians attempted a furious comeback by scoring by scoring seven points in less than 30 seconds during the last minute of play, but there wasn't enough time left to challenge for the lead.

"I thought they got more 50-50 balls," said Scott, whose team gave up 13 second-chance opportunities in the game. "When the ball was kind of -- when it wasn't a direct rebound where we could grab it, it was a longer rebound or the ball was loose -- I thought most times they came up with those and those are plays, if we want to win this type of game, we've got to find a way to come up with."

Charleston junior guard Delfincko Bogan scored a team-high 20 points for Charleston.

Jackson 12 16 18 16 -- 62

Charleston 14 13 17 22 -- 66

JACKSON (62) -- Josh Daume 5, Braden Wendel 7, Karson King 23, Blake Reynolds 13, Brandon Lueders 14. FG 23, FT 12-14, F 13. (3-pointers: Daume 1, Wendel 1, King 2. Fouled out: none)

CHARLESTON (66) -- Robert Bogan 12, Delfincko Bogan 20, Demontrail Clark 3, Shandor Webster 14, Michael Kellum 11, Timontrell Horton 6. FG 24, FT 11-18, F 14. (3-pointers: R. Bogan 1, D. Bogan 2, Clark 1, Webster 1, Kellum 2. Fouled out: none)