Jackson pulls away to down Meadow Heights girls 71-48

PATTON, Mo. -- For one quarter Friday, the Jackson Indians felt the lingering effects of a double-overtime loss from a night earlier.

But when the Indians worked their way through the sluggishness, they threw three quarters of sharp play at an overmatched Meadow Heights team and emerged with a 71-48 victory.

"It took us all a while to kind of catch fire," said Jackson senior guard Kaylen Knepp, who scored a game-high 18 points. "We played at Bluff last night and didn't get home until like midnight. We were all pretty tired. It took us a while, but we finally started to gel together."

The loss a night earlier to Poplar Bluff ended a six-game winning streak for the Indians, but it appeared to be nothing more than a bump, as Jackson improved to 12-6 after Friday's victory.

"We're starting to peak, which is good, because we didn't want to peak too early," Knepp said. "We're finally starting to work real well together. We believe in each other a lot and have a lot of faith in each other and we know that anybody can do it on our team.

"We don't rely on any one person. We play hard and we play aggressive defense, and our offense just comes from there. We try not to force things and let it come."

Knepp, who has committed verbally to play basketball next year at Division III Greenville College, made the conversion from a post player to guard last season. She's been working the point guard position this year with Whitney McNeely, and she helped push the tempo of Friday's game in Jackson's favor.

She provided the spark the Indians were missing in the second quarter, scoring 12 of Jackson's 22 points in the period. The game was tied at 10-10 entering the period, but with the senior leading the way, the Indians opened a 32-22 lead by halftime. Her spark was on both ends of the floor.

"She's our best defensive player by far," Jackson coach Sheila Haertling said. "She gets after it, and when she gets after it, everyone else seems to follow in her footsteps."

Dru Haertling also had a hand in the offensive burst over the final three minutes of the quarter, scoring four points and feeding Kylie Seyer under the basket on an inbounds pass for an easy basket.

The sharpness stretched into the second half, where Knepp fed 6-foot-1 sophomore center Connor King with passes on the Indians' first two possessions for layins, executing what their coach had preached at halftime.

"We need to do that more," Knepp said. "We have a hard time feeding [King] at times. But we're working on getting her the ball and Cass [Bollinger] the ball. Connor especially, she sometimes has a foot or two on some people."

King finished with 12 points and Bollinger had 10.

The Indians scored on their first six possessions of the third quarter. The lead grew to 18 points, 44-26, when Brooke Sanders scored on a fast break midway through the period. Jackson scored on 10 of its 13 possessions in the period and took a commanding 52-32 lead into the fourth quarter.

Meadow Heights, a Class 2 school and in just its fifth year of girls basketball, found itself overmatched in size and quickness against the Class 5 Indians.

"We didn't answer their physicalness on both ends of the floor," Panthers coach Mitch Nanney said. "They're used to playing a 5A schedule -- very strong, very competitive. You've got to be strong to hold your own, and we didn't do that on either end of the floor."

Heather Dietiker scored 14 points for the Panthers, while Hattie Cook hit three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.

Nanney still was upbeat after the loss, which was his team's fifth against Class 4 and Class 5 schools. The Panthers have compiled a 12-7 record while playing the entire season without sophomore Whitney Welker, who gained all-region honors as a freshman.

"We've got three girls averaging in double figures," Nanney said. "We've only lost seven without her playing."

Nanney said he expects Welker, who had knee surgery before the season, to make her season debut Saturday against Emminence, and if not then, in the Panthers' following game.

The season also is looking brighter for the Indians.

"We've been playing a lot better," coach Haertling said. "We just seem to mesh. The kids get along real well, they cheer for each other, when they're not playing, they're OK with it. They step up and cheer. This is probably the best team I've ever coached as far as caring about each other. They're not worried about their time. They're more focused on the team and cheering for each other."

The attitude complements the physical tools, which are numerous and diverse.

"We've got some size, we've got the guards, we've got the quickness," Haertling said. "Since the beginning of the year we've been getting better and better, and I hope that continues."

Jackson 10 22 20 19 -- 71

Meadow Hts 10 12 10 16 -- 48

JACKSON (71) -- Dru Haertling 7, Brooke Sanders 4, Kaylen Knepp 18, Connor King 12, Cass Bollinger 10, Makenzie Quade 4, Kylie Seyer 7, Laurie Clippard 2, Whitney McNeely 7. FG 27, FT 16-17, F 16. (3-pointers: McNeely 1. Fouled out: none)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (48) -- Mica Morse 6, Hattie Cook 13, Erin Bollmann 5, Gina Cureton 6, Heather Dietiker 14, Jillian Mills 2, Brooke Sander 2. FG 13, FT 18-32, F 16. (3-pointers: Cook 3, Dietiker 1. Fouled out: none)