Jackson boys basketball team makes push for Class 5 final four

The Jackson boys basketball team won its third consecutive sectional Wednesday, but it wouldn't have been possible without some clutch shooting from several seniors.

Braden Wendel had a pair of 3-pointers during the Indians' late rally before Connor Shepard scored the go-ahead trey and Terry Venable iced the game from the free-throw line.

Venable was a perfect 6 of 6 from the charity stripe, including four in the final period for Jackson, which won a 59-57 decision over Vianney and will take on St. Louis University High School in a Class 5 quarterfinal at 6 p.m. Saturday at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

"That was one of the reasons we had him in there," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said about Venable. "He made good decisions, and he guarded them well. He could do the things we wanted him to do defensively, and I felt like he could make his free throws. ... When you've got to make a one-and-one with 16 seconds left and you're up, those are huge free throws, and he made them both."

Wendel finished with a team-high 15 points and was one of four Indians to reach double figures. He called it "a huge team game."

"We've had different guys step up at different times this year," Scott said. "... Some of the other guys had an opportunity to step up, and they did a good job of that."

Reynolds, a 6-foot-7 senior, is averaging 20.7 points per game to lead Jackson (23-6) in scoring this season but was held to 10 points against a bigger Vianney squad.

Scott said the victory was a boost of confidence for his players but believes they were hungry for something more.

"I think for these guys, they just really wanted to get back to that quarterfinal game to give themselves a chance to go to the final four, and now they've done that, I think they will be ready to compete really hard on Saturday," Scott said.

The Indians will face another Metro Catholic Conference opponent in SLUH (18-11), which is allowing a conference-best 53.4 points per game this season.

Scott said the Junior Billikens play mostly man-to-man defense but will occasionally mix in a 1-2-2 zone.

"They'll press a little bit, but what they like to do is play half-court man," Scott said. "They don't extend out, but they do a really good job pressuring in the quarter-court. And if you pick your dribble up, they'll do a good job of getting up and denying. They've got enough quickness that they can do a good job of cutting down driving lanes, so that's going to be key. They can pressure. They don't have a big kid that's going to score inside, but they've got three big kids that can all play. ... They've got good size and good guards, so they're a really good team."

Brandon McKissic, a 6-foot-2 sophomore point guard, enters the game averaging 14.4 points per game this season to lead SLUH.

The Junior Bills also have a double-digit scoring leader in 5-11 junior guard Matt Nester, who's averaging 12.4 points and a team-high 6.1 assists per game. Nester is shooting 44 percent (61 of 138) from 3-point range this season.

Hunter Schmidt, a 6-5 power forward, is one of two seniors on SLUH's roster and is averaging a team-high seven assists per game.

"Those guys have done a really good job for them, but they play a couple other sophomores. He actually plays a freshman [Michael Sanders], who's made big shots for them. He made a huge 3 against Webster Groves," Scott said. "They've got some other guys that can make plays. All those guys are good, but they really don't focus on one guy scoring. They run a lot of doubles to get Nester open, but the other guys just look to make plays. We're going to have to guard some of the other guys.

"They're better than they probably look on their average. In basketball, any time a guy's averaging seven or eight points a game, that probably means that at some point he scores 15 or 16, which means he's capable of putting up numbers like that. We're going to have to do a good job on those guys, but we've got to make sure we don't let the other guys go off and get easy baskets or get any easy looks."

The winner will head to next week's final four and play either Blue Springs South or Nixa in the state semifinals at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri.