Semoball

Jackson stumbles late in loss to Miller Career Academy

Jackson’s Judd Thoma loses the ball while going out of bounds against Miller Career on Friday in Jackson.
Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Clayton Ernst scored 17 points and Steven Schneider chipped in 14 points in Jackson’s defeat against Miller Career Academy, 62-54, on Friday in Jackson.

“It was a well-played game,” Jackson head coach Kory Thoma said. “Miller Career, they’re very talented, they’re deep, they’re very athletic, they force us to do some things we haven’t done all year, and at the end, we had a two-point lead with about two and a half minutes to go. They had back-to-back three-pointers and we never recovered.”

Blayne Harris, Ernst, and Schneider provided all the offense in the first quarter, giving the Indians an early 16-11 lead.

Judd Thoma scored seven of his 11 points in the second quarter, but the Phoenix rose up to take a 32-27 halftime lead.

Schneider and Harris combined to make three 3-point baskets in the third quarter as the Indians tied the game at 47-47 off a 20-point period.

The Indians ran out of steam in the final period. Ernst’s seven points were all Jackson could muster in the fourth quarter, as the Phoenix rained three points to finish the game.

“Our defense kept us in most of the game,” Thoma said. “We had some early offensive rebounding problems they posed for us early. But at the end of the day, we got back in the game after halftime, we had a good third quarter and they just out-executed us late in the fourth quarter.”

Despite the loss, the Indians are still on pace to finish the season with a higher record in Thoma's first season at head coach than their previous three seasons. They have six losses but half of those came against rival Cape Central, two of those games were in tournament finals.

A big reason why is the Indians' improvement on defense. Jackson is holding opponents to 44.1 points per game. The last season the Indians held opponents to below 50 points per game was in 2015.

"We just focus a lot more on defense," Judd Thoma said after Jackson's win against Notre Dame on Tuesday. "[Coach Thoma] holds us accountable every day in practice, and when he was an assistant. That's kind of how he was too. I think he just kind of brought it over as a head coach as well.

"Our defense just creates opportunities," he said. "We know that if we go hard on defense and those opportunities are gonna come for us."

The Indians close out the homestand on Tuesday against Charleston. The two teams played in the semifinal round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, with Jackson coming out on top.

“We got to get better in games like this,” Coach Thoma said. “These regular season games, at the end of the day, they put a mark on your record, but we’re gonna take these losses and learn from through because the ultimate goal is to the end of March.”

Comments
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: