PB gets best of Jackson a second time

The potential for a magical night filled the air Friday at Jackson High School.

With Poplar Bluff, the second-ranked team in Class 5, visiting before a large crowd, Jackson looked serious about paybacks for a 15-point loss earlier this season. The Indians played up to the possibility by hitting their first three shots and scoring the game's first seven points.

But the "poof" that followed was not Indian magic, rather Jackson's upset hopes disappearing.

Poplar Bluff responded with its own seven-point spurt and was soon cruising to a comfortable 68-54 victory.

In improving to 13-1, the Mules made believers of Jackson (6-5) for the second time this year.

"There's not many teams like that come through around here," Jackson guard Matt Neal said of the top-ranked team in the Southeast Missouri Top 15 poll.

Bluff displayed its inside-outside game, starring 6-foot-8 sophomore Tyler Hansbrough and a group of sharp-shooting players .

Hansbrough made nifty moves underneath the basket for 14 points, while teammate Desi Higgs, who had three 3-pointers, matched the total from the outside. Tony Webb, an all-state receiver in football, added 12 points while Cheron Pearson tallied 10.

"We were hoping to be able to slow down Tyler inside," Jackson coach Mike Kiehne said. "We were playing the percentages that they weren't going to be as hot coming in as they were. We were trying to play off and contain their penetration, but they stepped up and hit their shots. You've got to pick your poison."

"If they're going to double-team me it's going to leave wide-open shots," Hansbrough said. "My teammates work on that every day in practice, and they just knock them down."

Jackson had its own inside-outside game, but it consisted of the same player. Tyler McNeely used a variety of methods to score a game-high 25 points, nearly half of the Indians' total. Besides being the Indians' usual workhorse inside, McNeely knocked down three of Jackson's six 3-pointers. He was the only Indian in double figures.

"He's really been a force for us," Kiehne said. "We've got to have that. Now we've got to get our guards hitting shots. When we're not going to hit them, we're not going to win. When we are, we will."

Jackson, which needed to shoot a high percentage from outside to have a chance against Poplar Bluff, hit on six of its 19 3-point attempts.

The Indians shot better than 50 percent from the field in the first and fourth quarters, but shot 29 percent in the second and third quarters when Poplar Bluff built a 20-point lead.

"We've been working on that in practice, knocking down the open ones," Neal said. "We just didn't get it done tonight."

Poplar Bluff's pressure and quickness on defense had something to do with the Indian shooting.

"We tried to simulate their pressure on the ball, but it's hard to simulate that kind of pressure," Neal said.

McNeely scored Jackson's first five points. A 15-footer by Jason Schafer upped the lead to 7-0 and had Poplar Bluff coach John David Pattillo calling timeout with 6:20 left in the first quarter.

The Mules scored their next three trips down the floor with Tyler Lance tying the game at 7-7.

Schafer gave Jackson an 11-9 lead with 3:20 left in the quarter, but it was the Indians' last. Bluff went ahead for good, 12-11, on its next trip down the floor on a Webb 3-pointer. The basket started a 14-2 Bluff spurt that spanned into the second quarter. Pearson scored down low off a Webb pass to cap the run as the Mules had doubled the Indian total, 26-13, by the 6:00 mark of the period.

Poplar Bluff took a 37-23 lead into halftime and upped the advantage to 54-34 by the close of the third quarter.

The Mules never shot below 50 percent in any quarter and finished at 60 percent for the game.

The Mules are the only team to beat Jackson by more than six points this season.

"We've plenty more games to play and we don't want to be perfect right now," Kiehne said. "I'd sure like to get another shot at them in the district."

jbreer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 124