Eagles pull away from West Nodaway in 2nd half
DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Junior guard Jason Sullivan hits a short floater for Jefferson during its 67-53 win against West Nodaway in the Class 1, District 15 Tournament semifinals Thursday night in Ravenwood. Sullivan led the Eagles with 16 points.
Jefferson and West Nodaway’s Thursday night Class 1, District 15 Tournament matchup lived up to conventional wisdom. With the teams playing level for most of the first three quarters, everything came down to the final period of action.
After the Rockets found ways to overcome a stagnant offense in the first half, it was the Eagles completing four quarters of quality play to take a 67-53 win and book themselves a meeting with Stanberry in the title game.
Jefferson opened the game with a three-pointer from the left corner from junior guard Jason Sullivan. The Rockets tied things at 5-5 on a triple from senior guard Chase Barnett before taking their first lead of the contest on a completed and-one from senior guard Trevor Meyer.
However, the Eagles responded to the first lead change of many to come by going on a 5-0 spurt then ending the quarter on separate 6-0 run, taking a 19-16 lead at the end of one.
“Trevor Meyer played a great, great first half,” Jefferson head coach Tim Jermain said. “He made some really tough shots and I told (junior guard Ben Jermain) especially, if he’s going to make those shots when we were right there, that’s what we wanna do. We want to keep him from going to the basket. We did a better job on him second half.”
After swapping leads for much of the second quarter, a pair of free throws from Meyer with less than three minutes remaining put West Nodaway on top, 26-25. Jefferson sophomore center Caden Farnan’s drop step to the basket for a layup reclaimed the lead on the following possession.
With time winding down to end the first half, Rockets freshman guard David Hull faded away at the top of the arc, nailing a tough three-pointer to send the game into intermission tied, 31-31. Meyer carried West Nodaway into the half with 13 points, albeit with two fouls, while junior forward Bryce Deen led Jefferson in the opening half with eight points.
“Dribble penetration,” Johnson said. “Trevor and Ryan like to dribble penetrate and they were able to get to the bucket a little bit. We didn’t get (junior forward Blake Farnan) involved as early as I wanted. For us to be successful, we need to have a little bit of an inside game going for us more consistently.”
In the middle of the third quarter, Jefferson created a bit of separation from West Nodaway with a 6-0 run, capped off by a three-pointer from sophomore guard Michael Burch that gave it a 39-35 advantage.
Another Eagles spurt, this time 5-0, extended the lead to 44-37 before a Meyer pull-up jumper from the free throw line banked off the glass and in. At the end of three, Jefferson held a 46-42 margin.
“Their foul trouble really made a big difference,” Tim Jermain said. “Blake Farnan and Meyer being on the bench, and then when Meyer came back in, I thought Jason (Sullivan) did a really good job of attacking him. We knew he had four fouls so Jason was really aggressive going to the basket about three times in a row, then they switched him on (Burch) and Michael pulled up and hit that little 15-footer. So I thought that was a big key was their foul trouble.”
The Eagles pulled away to their largest lead of the game early in the fourth period thanks to an 8-0 run to start the quarter. Blake Farnan buried a pair of free throws at the 5:52 mark to end the spurt and tally West Nodaway’s first points of the quarter.
Another six consecutive points from Jefferson following Blake Farnan’s freebies opened the lead up to 60-44. Farnan again ended the run, this time with a completed and-one at the 2:20 mark, but the Rockets offense was comatose too long to hold even with a hot Eagles offense in the second half.
“They’re always tough defensively and we knew we were surviving off dribble penetration,” Johnson said. “Trevor was struggling because he’s got an Achilles strain and he’s not as explosive as he was earlier. They’re good defensively and put a lot of pressure on you. We got in foul trouble in the third quarter with Trevor and Blake.”
Sullivan tallied 16 to lead Jefferson with Burch chipping in 14 and Deen and Caden Farnan each scoring 12. Meyer scored 18 for the game-high, which eclipses the West Nodaway record for career points.
The Rockets finish their season at 19-8 and lose forward Brenton Beason, Meyer, Evans and Barnett to graduation.
Jefferson (19-8) will take on Stanberry at 5 p.m. Saturday in Ravenwood for the district championship, the third meeting between the two teams this season. The Bulldogs took both of the regular season meetings, 50-43 Jan. 6 and 65-43 Jan. 17 in the Stanberry Invitational.
“I think for this bunch, we talked the other night, we really have two players who have never played in a district tournament,” Tim Jermain said. “We just lack a lot of the experience, so every game we get to play, we just gain more experience in this environment, loud environment, and I think that’s going to help us.”
DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Jefferson sophomore center Caden Farnan tallies two of his 12 points Thursday night in the Class 1, District 15 Tournament semifinal win against West Nodaway.
DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
West Nodaway senior guard Trevor Meyer slings up a shot at the rim Thursday night, his final game in a Rockets uniform, during a 67-53 loss to Jefferson. Meyer’s 18 points vaulted him into the top spot in career scoring at West Nodaway.
DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Rockets senior guard Ryan Evans hits a point-blank shot during West Nodaway’s 67-53, season-ending loss to Jefferson Thursday in the Class 1, District 15 Tournament semifinals.
