Jackson girls basketball team beats Oakville for district title

ST. LOUIS -- It would've been hard for Jackson girls basketball coach Tyler Abernathy to deliver a more accurate message during halftime of the Class 5 District 1 championship game Friday night.

"I said, 'Listen, they are going to go through a stretch where they miss shots,'" Abernathy said. "'We've just go to make sure when they go through that stretch we're not turning the ball over and we're taking advantage of them offensively and we're getting good shots.'"

The top-seeded Indians used a 13-0 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters to help them win 47-40 over host Oakville.

Oakville took a 35-29 lead with a basket with 3 minutes, 33 seconds left in the third quarter and did not score again until just 1:23 remained in the game.

"I knew it felt like a long time on the bench," Abernathy said. "I remember looking at coach going, 'One of these are bound to go in' because it's been a while. Sooner or later, percentages play. One of these is going to fall in there."

The Tigers missed 13 consecutive shots during Jackson's long run and turned the ball over six times.

"They backed off of us and they were all getting tired," Jackson senior Emily Davidson said. "They were getting sloppy, so we got a lot of steals and it just led to easy baskets."

Davidson said her team was "flustered" during a first half in which it led for only 32 seconds in the first quarter.

Oakville senior Aaryana Cook scored her team's first 12 points.

"We knew Cook was good," Abernathy said. "Now, we did not think she would shoot it that well. I've watched them play quite a bit, and I've never seen her shoot it that well. But tonight, you know, in a big game, she came out and she made shot after shot."

Cook scored 14 more points the rest of the game after her opening outburst.

"We made some adjustments. We have primarily always played man, and we've played more zone this year. I really thought we could guard them man, and then I realized Cook … was causing us more problems than I initially thought she was going to, so I thought in our zone we at least made them do something different."

The Indians, meanwhile, went cold from the floor and made just two of their 11 shots from the floor in the second quarter. They trailed 25-18 at halftime, when Abernathy also addressed his team's offensive execution.

"I told them, I said, 'Now one thing when you play a 1-3-1 [zone], you can beat it the same way multiple times and sometimes teams for some odd reason will stop taking that open shot against them," Abernathy said. "I think that's exactly what happened to us. We made that first 3, and then Rachel [Crites] passed up two or three of them.

"Well, they quit kind of guarding her and kind of squaring her up, and she was struggling to get the ball back to Danielle [Daume] or to the corner. I told her at halftime, 'If you're open, you've just got to shoot it. You've got to shoot it and then, if you make a couple, then they guard you and now you can pass the ball to the short corner or back to Danielle a little bit easier.' She came in the third quarter and she shot it."

Crites, a sophomore, made a 3-pointer on two of Jackson's first three possessions in the second half, and then tied the game at 35 on another with 1:38 left in the third quarter.

"Usually when I make the first one I feel more confident, and so I keep making them," said Crites, who finished with 16 points.

"When Rachel gets her feet set and she gets a specific spot on the floor, she's a really, really good shooter," Abernathy said. "She's worked really hard at it the last couple weeks. She went through a funk in the middle of season where she wasn't shooting it real well, but she's come in in the morning, and she's really worked on it. I thought it paid off today."

The district championship was the second in a row for the Indians (15-12), who will face St. Joseph's Academy at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill, Mo.

"Our kids work really hard," Abernathy said. "They put in a lot of time, and it's a lot easier to ask them to put in a lot of time whenever you're successful and they see the benefits of the time they put in. Our school has such great athletic support that I think it feeds into our confidence. It's a lot easier to ask them to put in those extra mornings shooting when they get the support they get."

Davidson, a senior, was happy she gets to put in more time this season.

"It means a lot because it's my junior and it's my senior year," she said. "And I didn't have to play my last game tonight."

Oakville 15 10 10 5 -- 40

Jackson 13 5 17 12 -- 47

OAKVILLE (40) -- Favor Oparaji 4, Aaryana Cook 26, Shannon Hasty 2, Alex Perry 2, Alyssa Norberg 6. FG 15, FT 5-7, F 13. (3-pointers: Cook 3, Norberg 2. Fouled out: none)

JACKSON (47) -- Cassidi Tomsu 6, Rachel Crites 16, Emily Davidson 6, Emily Gartman 3, Danielle Daume 7, Megan Williams 2, Kayla Keith 7. FG 16, FT 6-13, F 14. (3-pointers: Tomsu 1, Crites 4, Gartman 1, Daume 2, Keith 1. Fouled out: none)