Jackson girls basketball team defeats defending Holiday Classic champ ND 56-47 in final

Connor King's frustration was obvious Thursday.

She picked up two fouls less than three minutes into the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic championship game and sat the remainder of the first quarter.

King was whistled for her third personal with 6 minutes, 29 seconds left in the second quarter, which landed her back on the bench for the rest of the half.

Jackson's 6-foot-1 senior post only managed two points on 1-of-4 shooting before halftime.

"It was tough," King said. "This was a big game and this was my last Christmas tournament game, and I really wanted to be a part of our team win. But my team did a great job and kept us in the game. And coach [Tyler] Abernathy kept telling me on the bench I was going to have a great second half, and I believed him. As tough as it was, I knew the second half was going to be a lot better."

Jackson players hold the championship trophy after defeating Notre Dame 56-47 in the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic title game Thursday at the Show Me Center. (Laura Simon)

King's frustration turned into aggression in the second half. She scored 12 points in the second half to help rally the Indians past Notre Dame 56-47 to grab the tournament crown.

"I knew they didn't have a whole lot of height and I was just going to post up and I was going to do what I do," said King, who already signed to play at Southeast Missouri State next season. "If it worked, it worked, and if it didn't, it didn't."

The plan worked fine, and the frustration melted away as the second half progressed. She hit back-to-back buckets late in the fourth quarter to push her team's lead to 50-43 with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left. Notre Dame coach Renee Peters called a timeout, and King headed to her team's huddle with a huge smile and received high-fives from her teammates.

"She's a tall girl," Notre Dame senior Brooke Bohnert said about King. "We don't really have height, so her coming in and scoring those down-low buckets really got them going. We were taking advantage of her being out the first half, and whenever she came back in, we just kind of let her walk back into it."

Notre Dame jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter and took advantage of King's absence. The Indians (8-1) committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter.

Jackson's Connor King hands Indians coach Tyler Abernathy the championship trophy Thursday after the Indians' 56-47 victory against Notre Dame.

The Bulldogs (5-4) pulled away in the second quarter, mostly after King went to the bench with her third foul. Notre Dame used an 11-0 run for a 13-point lead midway through the period.

Jackson coach Tyler Abernathy said King sitting on the bench accounted for his team's struggles to run its offense.

"It effected us because a lot of our offense revolves around Connor and Dru [Haertling]," he said. "Not necessarily them scoring, but them getting other people involved by causing double teams. Whenever she had to sit, it threw us off a little bit, but I thought the girls that came in did a fantastic job."

Senior Dru Haertling helped dice the Bulldogs' lead by scoring six points over the final 1:20 of the second quarter to send the Indians into halftime down just 27-21.

"We kept talking about every timeout, let's win the next three minutes," Abernathy said. "Let's keep this thing within striking distance at halftime, and I really thought we as a team pulled it together. And when we got it to six, you could just see the life in the locker room. Heads were up. People were ready to go."

Jackson's Connor King hands her coach Tyler Abernathy their championship trophy Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 during the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

Notre Dame shot 55 percent (12 of 22) from the field in the first half and capitalized on 15 turnovers by the Indians before halftime. But Jackson felt fortunate to only trail by six at the intermission.

"Coach was pumped," Haertling said. "He said, 'You did it, you kept it under 10.' It wasn't ever a negative atmosphere. Coach was like, 'You're going to do it.'"

Jackson grabbed its first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Rachel Hodo with 1:11 left in the third quarter. The Indians never trailed again.

"I think we started to get tired," Bohnert said. "They played phenomenal defense. They play tight defense. I think we kind of struggled to get open."

Danielle Daume also provided an offensive spark for the Indians by scoring eight of her 12 points in the second half. Jackson's shooting improved considerably after halftime. The Indians connected on 64 percent of their shots (14 of 22) and forced Notre Dame into 10 turnovers after halftime.

"I thought we started to get the ball inside a little bit more and then a lot of basketball boils down to making shots," Abernathy said. "We made some shots. We got good shots and we made some shots. I felt like when we put the pressure on them a little bit, they kind of turned it over a couple times. You could kind of see the momentum and the confidence swing a little bit."

Notre Dame 12 15 11 9 -- 47

Jackson 8 13 20 15 -- 56

NOTRE DAME (47) -- Karsen Powers 7, Shelby Beussink 6, Brooke Bohnert 8, Summer Burger 7, Miranda Fowler 10, Madison Huckstep 7, Annie Siebert 2. FG 18, FT 7-10, F 18. (3-pointers: Huckstep 1, Fowler 2, Powers 1. Fouled out: Siebert)

JACKSON (56) -- Connor King 14, Dru Haertling 17, Emily Davidson 2, Rachel Hodo 8, Danielle Daume 12, Megan Williams 3. FG 21, FT 7-16, F 11. (3-pointers: Haertling 3, Hodo 2, Daume 2. Fouled out: none)