If Herculaneum hoped to compete with the red-hot Jefferson boys basketball team, the Blackcats needed everything 6-1 senior center Jacob Moreland could provide.
But Moreland, among the team leaders with 10 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, was unavailable for the Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools division game at Herculaneum Jan. 19. He suffered a leg injury in practice. Blackcat head coach Jason Jarvis said Moreland could return after Herky hosts the Bruce Thomas Tournament this week.
Jefferson head coach Sean Breeze certainly noted Moreland’s absence in the Blue Jays’ 68-44 runaway victory.
“I think it made a big difference,” said Breeze, who rested his starters for the fourth quarter, in which the running-clock rule (30-point margin) kicked in for a few minutes. “He’s a good player, very fundamental, great footwork. He’s tough inside. We were prepared and I hate that he wasn’t out there. I feel bad for the kid.”
Without Moreland to stand his ground inside, Jefferson guards Cooper Frisk, Brandon Burford and Max Schnitzler fed 6-4 seniors Nate Breeze and Kaleb Weiler one pass after another as the two bigs rotated high and low for a steady stream of buckets.
“(Nate) Breeze is a matchup nightmare, and (Weiler) is physical and strong and we couldn’t match that,” Jarvis said. “We have young kids who are learning as they go. We didn’t quit fighting the whole game. Tip my hat to (Sean Breeze). He’s got a good team.”
It was the sixth straight victory for the Blue Jays, who improved to 11-5 overall and 2-0 in the JCAA small-schools division. On Jan. 17, Jefferson got by host St. Vincent (8-7, 1-1) for the second time this season, 54-48. The Blue Jays crushed the Indians 67-37 at the Duke Herbert Tournament Dec. 1 in Crystal City.
“We went out and did our thing and played the best we could (against Herky),” said Weiler, who averages 14.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. “Our defense was really good and we were moving the ball around really well.”
“Kaleb has turned into such a solid post player,” said Sean Breeze, who is Nate Breeze’s uncle. “With Nate, we have that size and the kids know it and they’re looking to get them the ball.”
At the same time Jefferson was beating St. Vincent, across town Herculaneum (4-9, 0-1) found success against the other team in Perryville – the Pirates – with a furious fourth-quarter rally to pull out a 55-51 victory.
With Moreland out of the lineup against Perryville, junior guard Gage Albertson (6-1) played in his first varsity game and led the Blackcats with 19 points. Albertson hit three 3-point baskets for his nine points against Jefferson.
“He had some good moments tonight,” Jarvis said. “We’re getting used to Albertson being out on the court. When we get Moreland back, we can get some things rolling.”
Nate Breeze, averaging 22.6 points per game, is one of the top scorers in the St. Louis area. He poured in 29 points against the Blackcats, and it could have been more if he hadn’t missed nine of 15 free throws. Breeze is hard to stop when he hauls in defensive rebounds and turns them into baskets at the other end – including 3-pointers as he did against Herky in the first quarter.
Sophomore guard Cooper Frisk sank a 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer to give the Blue Jays a 19-9 lead. Frisk and Schnitzler each scored seven points.
“(The guards) did a good job of hitting the guys they needed to hit and after that, they did a good job of crashing the boards,” Sean Breeze said. “Bruce Dix stepped up and played well. Max Schnitzler had a real good game. Brandon Burford is a great track runner, but people don’t realize he’s as good a basketball player.
“We always have athleticism. These guys are starting to put some basketball with it.”
In the second quarter, Jefferson’s lead grew from 10 points to 20 at 35-15. Dix, Weiler, Schnitzler and Breeze all made field goals in the surge.
Herky’s Devin Black made field goals on either side of an old-fashioned 3-point play by Breeze to start the second half. Weiler scored seconds later and the Blue Jay lead grew to 43-21.
Midway through the third, Albertson drained a 3-ball, but that was answered by baskets from Breeze and senior Coben Whitener, who took a nice bounce pass from Weiler to the rim. Schnitzler’s basket from downtown made it 55-26 with 2:55 left in the third.
Breeze let his bench play the entire fourth. Herculaneum responded by scoring the next 11 points and turning off the running clock. Sophomore guard Jackson LaPlante started the run with a trey.
“They put in the hard work in practice and they’re guarding those starters all the time,” Breeze said about his bench players. “They don’t get a lot of recognition for that, so it’s nice to get them out there and reward them because they’re such good guys and this is a close team.”
Jefferson hosts its next three games, including McKinley Classical Leadership (4-13) tonight (Jan. 25) and Grandview (4-13, 0-0) Jan. 30 in a conference game.
“We have to treat each game like it’s the next most important game of the season,” Sean Breeze said. “You can’t settle or relax and if you get a big lead, it’s fine. Like everybody else, we’ve got goals. We talk about the steps toward the goal. That’s what tonight was.”
Blue Jay girls beat Blackcats in foul-filled game
Jefferson pressed host Herculaneum from the beginning of their Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools girls basketball game Jan. 19 and that led to Blackcat turnovers and 21 points for the Blue Jays in the first quarter.
But that defensive intensity also resulted in a flurry of fouls, with 13 in the first quarter alone. In all, 60 free throws were attempted and Jefferson got the better of it, draining 27 of 41 from the stripe to produce a 58-55 victory.
“Our press usually comes out really good,” said Jefferson head coach Stevie Holdinghausen, whose team improved to 12-5 overall and 1-0 in conference play. “We got into some foul trouble, so we backed off of it a little. There were a lot of fouls in that game.”
Sophomore Halayna Loyd started the night with a 3-point basket and two free throws, and her free throw and bucket late in the fourth quarter broke a 53-53 tie. Ten of Loyd’s team-high 15 points came on free throws. She didn’t make a field goal in the second half.
“She does a tremendous job defensively, and offensively, she’s great from the outside, but I think the best thing she does is drive and post up and use those moves inside,” Holdinghausen said. “That’s really key for us.”
“I wanted to drive to the basket and draw fouls to score points for my team,” Loyd said.
Despite playing from behind most of the night, Herculaneum (4-9, 0-1) showed it could fight its way back with outside shooting. Junior guard Jill Jarvis nailed a 3-point basket right after the opening tip, made a field goal midway through the first quarter and closed out the period with a fast-break bucket to cut the Jefferson lead to 21-17. Jarvis scored 13 of her 17 points in the first half.
Before Jarvis went coast-to-coast to score, teammate Amia Moore, a senior guard, sank a 3-point shot, and then made another early in the second to cut the Blue Jay lead to 22-21. Moore made another trey in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 points. She left the game briefly in the fourth after being helped from the floor.
“My shins were cramping in the fourth quarter,” Moore said. “I sprained my ankle in our previous game.”
“Those girls are great shooters and they were knocking them down and making it difficult for us to defend,” Holdinghausen said. “I think the biggest thing is, we’re able to communicate and move quickly and trust each other on the court.”
Doc Carranza took over as head coach of the Blackcats not long before the season began, replacing Riley Blair. Any coaching change takes time for the players to adjust to, with differing styles and playbooks. Carranza is well known and respected in the community for his dedication to coaching tennis at Windsor and basketball in the county for decades.
“We do make good passes,” Carranza said. “They look for the open person, move the ball pretty well and get the open shot. We have some decent shooters. They’re getting used to the style.
“We weren’t playing people out of position, but we had people there who hadn’t been in that situation before. They’re figuring out how to get it done.”
When Moore and Jarvis made back-to-back 3-point shots just 27 seconds apart in the second, the Blackcats surged ahead 24-22. Jarvis capped the 7-0 run with a free throw and Jefferson turned the ball over on a traveling violation. But the Blue Jays got the ball back and scored the next eight points on a basket by junior Megan Wood and 3-pointers by Loyd and sophomore Peyton Guffey. Senior Grace Neels ended the first half with two free throws and Jefferson led 31-26.
The Blue Jays led for most of the second half, but Herculaneum was never far behind and took a couple of brief leads. A trey by Neels broke a 32-32 tie with 5:45 left in the third, and Jefferson went on a 6-0 run later in the quarter. During that stretch, junior Lia Ott turned her steal into two points when she drew a foul and made two free throws.
“Megan brings a whole new energy when she’s on the court and she got into foul trouble,” Holdinghausen said. “Sitting her in the second quarter for a while hurt.
“Lia, her ability to take somebody off the dribble and go to the free-throw line – not having that is huge when she had to sit for a while, too.”
Whenever Jefferson mounted a run, the Blackcats responded. Herculaneum senior Lane Hamtil made a basket and fellow senior Izze Blankenship sank a free throw to cap the third-quarter scoring. Early in the fourth, a Jarvis 3 made it 45-41 Blue Jays. A 3-point basket by Herky junior Abby Smith cut Jefferson’s lead to 45-44 with 6:45 left in the game, and 45 seconds later, Blackcat freshman Tamya Waters tied the game 46-46 with a basket.
Consecutive 3s by Moore and Smith kept the game square at 53-53. Loyd sank a free throw at 2:30 and made a field goal at 2:03 to put her team back in front. After Moore and Jarvis missed 3-point tries, Hamtil grabbed the second rebound and scored, making it 56-55 with 1:01 to go.
With 32 seconds left, the Blue Jays turned the ball over at midcourt, but Herky couldn’t capitalize. Still ahead by a point, Jefferson missed two free throws with 12 seconds left. But two seconds later, Neels closed out the game with two free throws.
Jefferson hosts Grandview (6-10, 0-2) Jan. 29. Herculaneum is in the 43rd Hillsboro Girls Invitational this week as the No. 8 seed.