EVERETT — All good things must come to an end.
For the first time since the 2008-09 season, the Jackson boys basketball team won’t represent the top-eight 4A teams in the state at the Hardwood Classic in Tacoma.
The Timberwolves fell just shy of making a sixth straight trip to the Tacoma Dome. No. 3-ranked Issaquah handed Jackson a 56-52 loss Saturday in a state-regional game against at Everett Community College, ending the Timberwolves’ season.
After losing 10 seniors from last year’s team, not many people thought the Timberwolves would even be in the position they were in Saturday against the Eagles, but the Timberwolves have been proving all those people wrong all season.
“I’m very proud of them,” Jackson head coach Steve Johnson said. “I told them after that, there was a point last summer in the summer stuff that we did and early in the season that I don’t think anyone would have thought that we would’ve been in this position to have a chance to win this game and win the district championship and all that stuff. It’s really disappointing right now. We wanted to go one more week. We wanted to get to Tacoma. I think we were good enough tonight, we just turned the ball over a few too many times and gave up a few too many big plays.”
Jackson fell behind 10-6 late in the first stanza, but closed on a 4-0 run to tie the game at 10 going into the second quarter. The Timberwolves trailed by as many as four in the second quarter, but again closed the gap late. Junior Brian Brown tied the game at 17 with a putback and a free throw with 2:30 to play before halftime. Senior Yegor Gorbenko gave Jackson its first lead 25 seconds later with another 3-point play to make it 20-17.
Brown scored all nine of his first-half points in the second quarter to give the Timberwolves the lift they needed.
“He’s had a great season,” Johnson said. “He gave us some great energy plays and he had a basket in the fourth quarter to kind of get it close again. He struggled a little bit against the pressure in the third quarter, but he’s been a big boost for us all year and I’m hoping he takes the momentum of tonight and this season and really steps up and has a bigger year for us next year.”
Jackson capped off a 15-point second quarter with a 3-pointer by senior Dolan Tierney at the halftime buzzer that gave the Timberwolves a 25-19 lead at intermission.
Despite finishing with 26 points, many of which were free throws late in the game, Jackson held Issaquah’s leading scorer Ty Gibson to just five points in the first half.
“I know he had 26 and that’s above his average, so it’s a little ridiculous to say that we did a good job on him, but if you consider the free throws at the end, how many shots he takes and how aggressive he is, I thought (we did),” Johnson said. “That’s what good players do. It’s not like we didn’t know he was capable of that.”
Issaquah’s offense, which struggled in the first half, shooting just 5-for-17, came to life in the third quarter. The Eagles closed the quarter on an 8-2 run to take a 37-35 lead.
Jackson never led again.
“You’ve got to give Jackson credit, they played hard,” Issaquah head coach Jason Griffith said. “They executed their game plan extremely well throughout the first half. I felt like we did a pretty good job changing tempo in the second half. (The game) got a little closer down the stretch than we wanted, but we managed to pull it out.”
Issaquah took control of the game early in the fourth quarter and extended its lead to as many as seven. Jackson fought back and kept it close thanks to some missed free throws by the Eagles.
Tierney connected on a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left that cut the Issaquah lead to 55-52, but Gibson made a free throw moments later that put secured the win for the Eagles.
“We wanted to be in a position to win the game and we expected to win the game,” Johnson said. “We had our chances. I don’t think anyone that watched that game would say that we can’t play with that team. We can and we did. They just made a few more plays than us. They’re a good team, but I’m proud of our guys despite being disappointed.”
Herald Writer David Krueger contributed to this story.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Everett Community College
Issaquah 10 9 18 19 —56
Jackson 10 15 10 17 —52
Issaquah–Tanner Davis 12, Jack Jerue 1, Ty Gibson 26, Jason Crandall 7, Garrett White 0, Scott Kellum 7, Jack Dellinger 3. Jackson–Frank Rossi 6, Dolan Tierney 10, Brian Brown 11, Connor Marschall 0, Yegor Gorbenko 15, Ethan Hammond 0, Peter Manalo 0, Sam Saufferer 8, Colton Faddis 2. 3-point goals–Gibson 2, Rossi 1, Tierney 2. Records–Issaquah 21-5 overall. Jackson 17-6.
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