Jackson boys basketball team routs Charleston 85-43

Ten years is a long time to go without beating a team in the regular season.

For the Jackson boys basketball team, it was time to erase that statistic against a Charleston team it had not defeated in a regular season game since 2005.

Jackson coach Darrin Scott challenged his team to do something about it Tuesday, and they responded.

"I feel like we just wanted it more. At halftime, coach Scott just said, 'We haven't beaten them in the regular season in 10 years,'" Jackson junior Jacob Smith said. "And that really just kind of fueled our fire. We just came out from the very start wanting it and carried that on throughout the game. We just really wanted it more."

Smith and Jackson senior Blake Reynolds had a combined 52 points in a dominant 85-43 SEMO Conference victory at home.

Reynolds had a game-high 31 points and Smith added 21 in the Indians' fifth consecutive win.

"I like to give a lot of credit to my teammates and my guards that are getting me the ball in good positions to score," Reynolds said. "And we really took advantage of the height advantage that we had over those guys. We knew from the last time that we had played them that we had that advantage and we were going to be able to pound the ball inside and get buckets that way. That was our game plan coming into this."

Jackson (16-5) defeated Charleston (12-10) 85-59 in the third-place game of the SEMO Conference Tournament earlier this season.

The Indians never trailed, opening the game's scoring on a 3-pointer from Reynolds from the top of the key. He followed it up with a basket underneath two minutes later.

Charleston answered with a 3-pointer and a jumper to tie the game at 5-5 with 3 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the first, but the Indians went on a 13-5 run to close out the period with an 18-10 lead.

"Well, it was pretty evident right away that we couldn't rebound with them or stay with their bigs," Charleston coach Danny Farmer said. "The height just killed us. They're a good team. They shot it well. We started out in a zone, knowing that we had a hard time guarding them in a man-to-man in the SEMO Conference Tournament. We did it for a while, and then we went back to man, and they just killed us."

Charleston scored the first basket of the second quarter when senior Delfincko Bogan drove to the bucket and scored 15 seconds in to cut the lead to six points. But the Bluejays turned the ball over, and Jackson responded with an 8-0 run five minutes before halftime.

Junior Garrett Walker hit two straight 3s during the stretch and Reynolds added a basket.

Dontarius Sharp responded with a basket and a free throw a minute later, but the Indians outscored the Bluejays 11-8 over the duration of the quarter for a 37-23 lead at halftime.

Scott said he was impressed with the way his players contained Charleston's shooters in the first half.

"With them you have to contain Del [Bogan], keep him out of the paint and then get out on their shooters," Scott said. "I felt like we did a pretty good job in the first half. I felt like we handled their pressure, made them take some uncomfortable shots and then get the ball where it needed to be on our end."

The Indians limited Bogan to 11 points, while Sharp and Mardareyon Clark each had six points to round out the Bluejays' scoring in the first half.

The Indians had their best quarter of shooting in the third, where they hit 11 of 14 shots from the field (78 percent), and outscored the Bluejays 26-8.

"In the third quarter, that's when we did our best job," Scott said. "I felt like we got out, and then when they drove we did a good job with our rotations contesting shots and rebounding well. And then we really slowed down on offense and did a good job of looking into the post and either getting it to the post, or making a play off of that."

Charleston committed seven turnovers in the third and was limited to just eight shots. Charleston finished the game with 19 turnovers.

"Them rebounding, scoring and forcing us to take bad shots really hurt in that third quarter," Farmer said. "They played great defense all night, but in that third we got outplayed the most. We're just trying to get to the postseason at this point, and that's a good test for us right there."

Jackson began the fourth with a 12-4 run to increase its advantage to 75-35 with 5:31 remaining, and took its largest lead of the game at 83-40 when sophomore Jacob Friess scored with 2:10 to play.

The Indians have a tough stretch of games coming up, beginning with a visit to Farmington on Friday. Jackson will also host Central on Tuesday and finish the season with two games on the road and one at home.

Scott said he expects his team to play with the same kind of intensity demonstrated against the Bluejays for the remainder of the season.

"Our whole season is just trying to prepare them to play for the end of they year. So we feel like we're doing that," Scott said. "Our next two days will be the same thing. We're going to try to work individually to get better. Work on team things and just overall come out and work as hard as we did tonight in the games during this stretch run and hopefully past that."

Charleston 10 13 8 12 -- 43

Jackson 18 19 26 22 -- 85

CHARLESTON (43) -- Delfincko Bogan 19, Mardareyon Clark 8, Demarcus Sharp 7, Dontarius Sharp 6, Tenerrious Ewing 3. FG 17, FT 3-8, F 12 (3-pointers: Bogan 5, Dontarius Sharp 1. Fouled out: none)

JACKSON (85) -- Blake Reynolds 31, Jacob Smith 21, Connor Shepard 10, Pete Lake 6, Garrett Walker 6, Jacob Friess 5, Braden Wendel 4, Cameron Hester 2. FG 36, FT 6-8, F 13 (3-pointers: Reynolds 2, Smith 2, Walker 2, Friess 1. Fouled out: none)