MILL CREEK — The Eagles’ second meeting with the Timberwolves began differently but ended the same as the first.
Arlington took advantage of a lax Jackson defense for an early advantage, but in the end the Timberwolves ran away with an 82-51 win and a state berth during a District 1 semi-final game Feb. 11.
“We just didn’t come out with as much energy as we did in the first half,” said Arlington coach Nick Brown.
Indeed the Eagles came out on fire, connecting on 3-pointers on four straight possessions as part of a 16-0 run to take a 20-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. Sophomore Terry Dawn did most of the damage, hitting three straight treys and the Eagles were riding high.
Slowly, however, the Timberwolves clawed their way back into the game behind senior Brett Kingma. The wily guard scored 14 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to help Jackson take a 35-32 lead.
“I thought we did a good job on Kingma’s shot,” said Brown. “He had to adjust it, but he just made them.”
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Kingma who took over in the second half. The University of Oregon recruit merely acted as a decoy as every other Jackson player attacked the basket and Jackson began the half with a 13-0 run and didn’t look back.
“They just have so many kids that can hit shots and they all did,” said Brown. “That pace is tough for anybody to maintain — nobody has yet — they still haven’t lost a league game.”
While a win would have clinched one of the three available state berths possible for a District 1 team, the loss made Arlington’s road to the state tournament more difficult as they had to defeat Kamiak Feb. 15 and then win two more games.
Leading the way for the Eagles was Dawn with 11 points while Zach Cooper added nine and Eric Carlson had eight.