Jackson girls basketball team drops final home game to state-ranked Dexter

Had it not been for the game's first seven minutes, the Jackson girls may have pulled off the upset.

As it was, the Indians couldn't quite recover from an early 13-2 deficit and fell to Dexter 56-41 Monday night in their final regular-season home game.

Senior forward Brittany Harris scored a game-high 27 points as the Bearcats, ranked No. 5 in Class 4 in the latest MBCA/MOsports.com girls poll, improved to 22-3 on the season.

"You get down by 10 points to a team like that, you've got to outscore them by 11 points over the next three quarters," Jackson coach Tyler Abernathy said. "That's tough to do."

Not that the Indians (12-12) didn't try. Handcuffed after senior point guard Danielle Daume drew her second personal foul just 1 minute, 8 seconds into the game, Jackson committed eight first-quarter turnovers and trailed 13-6 heading into the second period. But four 3-pointers -- two by senior forward Megan Williams and one each by sophomore guard Mckinzie Scott and freshman guard Cassidy Tomsu -- brought the Indians within 21-18 and their fans to their feet midway through the second.

It was 23-20 when Jackson, with the ball and a chance to tie the score in the final moments of the first half, committed a critical turnover that led to Dexter's Alison Jarrell hitting a 3-pointer that gave the Bearcats breathing room at 26-20 at intermission.

In the third, Dexter went back to its bread-and-butter, pounding the ball inside to Harris, who scored on a variety of spin moves and post-ups. When the Indians fronted her, Dexter lobbed the ball over the top. And when Harris did miss, 6-foot-1 junior forward Paige Patterson was there on the weak side to clean it up.

"We really got the ball inside tonight," Harris said. "One of our goals is to play inside-out, and that's what we did."

When Jackson did bottle up the middle, the Bearcats looked outside, where Jarrell connected on three 3-pointers among her 11 points.

"You've got to take [Harris] away," Abernathy said. "But when they hit those 3s, they're tough to beat."

Jackson had one last surge, pulling within 44-38 following two free throws from Kayla Keith with 5:08 remaining in the game. But Dexter held Jackson without a field goal the rest of the way, and a 6-0 run pushed the lead to 50-38 with 1:38 left.

"Danielle getting in foul trouble hurt us," Abernathy admitted. "After the initial shock of Danielle not handling the ball wore off, we did very well the last few minutes of the second half.

"Our kids play really hard. They will compete."

Jackson couldn't capitalize on it's vaunted running game as Dexter was able to control the boards and take care of the ball. The Bearcats committed just 10 turnovers for the game.

"Jackson is very well-coached," Dexter coach Chad Allen said. "Tyler definitely had a great game plan today. They like to pressure the ball and get out and run, but I think our guards did a great job of taking care of the ball."

Evan as his squad jumped to an early lead, Allen figured the Indians had a run in them.

"They always find a way to battle back, and that's what Jackson did tonight," he said. "I'm very pleased that our girls kept their composure and found a way to grind it out tonight."

Daume led Jackson's balanced scoring attack with nine points. Tomsu and Williams added eight points each.

"They've got really good players, and it was hard once we got down," Williams said, noting she knew the Indians could fight back. "I thought we did. We just got worn out."

"We all hung together," Jackson senior guard Emily Davidson added. "We really wanted to win this game."

The Indians found success driving to the hoop -- either drawing fouls or kicking the ball out for a 3-pointer -- but simply couldn't get over the early-deficit hump.

"We know we've got a good free-throw shooting team," Davidson said. "Once we got into the bonus, it was to our advantage."

Dexter 13 13 16 14 -- 56

Jackson 6 14 10 11 -- 41

DEXTER (56) -- Mollie Whitehead 5, Katelynn Frazier 3, Alison Jarrell 11, Erika Cobb 5, Paige Patterson 5, Brittany Harris 27. FG: 21, FT: 9-14, F: 15. (3-pointers: Jarrell 3, Whitehead 1, Cobb 1. Fouled out: Cobb)

JACKSON (41) -- Cassidy Tomsu 8, Rachel Crites 2, Emily Davidson 5, Emily Gartman 2, Danielle Daume 9, Mckinzie Scott 3, Megan Williams 8, Kayla Keith 4. FG: 13, FT: 10-15, F: 12. (3-pointers: Williams 2, Tomsu 2, Scott 1. Fouled out: none)