Despite a midseason coaching shakeup, the Jefferson boys basketball team is steadily marching through a terrific campaign.
Since the school announced earlier this month that athletic director Jason Dreyer would replace head coach Nic Zenker on an interim basis for the remainder of the season, the Blue Jays are 5-0. They knocked off host Herculaneum 67-57 on Friday in a Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools game, improving to 12-6 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Jefferson is the only small school in the JCAA without a conference loss.
Jefferson (13-6) hosted Valle Catholic on Tuesday and won its fifth straight game with a 57-52 victory over the Warriors.
The Blue Jays and Blackcats were tied 28-28 at halftime and Dreyer told his players he felt Herky was playing harder.
“We talked about attacking the basket and we came out in the third quarter with lots of energy and we held them to seven points (in the third),” Dreyer said.
That set up a wild and woolly fourth quarter, in which the Blue Jays barely outscored the host squad 23-22.
“In the second half, we were penetrating and dishing it off,” Dreyer said. “Our guards kicked it down to our post players for wide open jump shots.”
Junior Easton Null, who led the Blue Jays with 26 points, started the game hot from the field but cooled off in the second quarter.
“He came out in the second half and was feeling it,” Dreyer said.
The coach also noted that senior Dakota Jakoubek had one of the best games of his career with 10 points, 10 rebounds and at least four blocks.
“He took control of the inside and forced Herky to take tough outside jump shots,” Dreyer said.
Herculaneum was led offensively by Matt Sales’ 21 points. Chandler Jansen scored 12 points. The Blackcats fell to 5-11 and 1-2.
Jefferson has conference games remaining against Grandview at home on Tuesday, at Crystal City (Feb. 2) and home against St. Pius X (Feb. 9). Winning a conference title after all the turmoil of an in-season coaching change would be a fine accomplishment for a team that was 10-15 last year.
“Winning makes it a little easier,” Dreyer said of the transition. “We’re on a roll right now and we’re hoping we can keep it going the rest of the year. The kids are playing hard and playing for each other. We’re more unselfish as a team.”
Herky coach going home
Riley Blair is going home on Saturday. And he’s taking his hard-charging 16-1 Herculaneum girls basketball team with him.
The Blackcats survived a scare in their 54-53 win over visiting Jefferson on Friday night in a JCAA small-schools tilt. They will play Benton Consolidated in Benton, Ill. on Saturday at 4 p.m. Blair played basketball for the Rangers in high school where Rich Herrin was the head coach for many years.
Blair did not play for Herrin at Benton but was a graduate assistant for him at Southern Illinois-Carbondale, where Herrin coached from 1985 to 1998, leading the Salukis to three straight appearances (1992-1994) in the NCAA Tournament.
Benton is coached by Andy Sloan, who Blair knows from their days as students at Benton. The Rangerettes will visit Herculaneum next season.
“It will be a cool experience (Saturday) because their gym seats about 4,500 people,” Blair said. “I think our kids will enjoy playing on the big floor. Last year (the Rangerettes) were really good. They have a good program, but this year they have a lot of underclassmen. Basketball in Illinois is top notch.”
Against Jefferson, Herky watched the Blue Jays (7-10, 0-1) race out to a 9-0 lead and then spent the next three quarters chipping away at the deficit. The Blackcats finally grabbed the lead with 4.6 seconds to play. Taylor Metcalf began the game-winning play by driving to the middle of the lane and dishing out a bounce pass to Rae Ann Fuller, who scored on a layup for a 54-52 Herky advantage. Metcalf is closing in on 100 assists this season.
Fuller, Herculaneum’s all-time leading rebounder, hauled down a missed Blue Jay free throw attempt as time wound down. She led all scorers with a season-high 23 points, 20 in the second half. She also collected seven rebounds and had three steals.
“We kept pounding the ball to Fuller inside and she was able to do whatever she wanted to with the ball. They didn’t have anyone to stop her,” Blair said.
Blair remembered a conversation he had with his senior post player before the season began.
“We had a long talk and she asked what my expectations were and I told her she was a key factor in how good we could be,” Blair said. “She has done everything we’ve asked of her. The whole senior class has bought into what we’ve been doing the last four or five years. The system is paying off.”
Senior Emily Fischer recorded a double-double for Herky with 12 points, all in the second half, and 10 rebounds, eight in the second half. Fischer (10.7 points) and fellow seniors Lauren Partney (12) and Ashley Lodike (10.7) are all averaging 10 points or more per game. Most of the seniors have had similar success on the volleyball court for Herky over the last two seasons.
“That’s a testament to our senior leaders. They don’t like to lose,” Blair said.
Tigers claw back into contention
The Festus girls began the season 0-6 and were outscored an average of 20.5 points per game.
Since then, the Tigers (8-7) have won eight of nine games and are tied with Perryville for the JCAA large-schools lead at 2-0. Festus is unbeaten in 2018 and rolled to conference wins against Hillsboro (52-41) and Windsor (75-20) on successive nights last week.
“Our schedule got more favorable and a couple of personnel moves made us stronger,” said Festus head coach Ron Rhodes about the Tigers’ turnaround.
Perhaps the biggest move involved the biggest player. Rhodes elevated 6-1 sophomore Abby McMillan from the junior varsity on Dec. 7 against Northwest. In her nine games on the varsity, McMillan is averaging 5.9 points and 5.6 rebounds.
Rhodes also shifted Abby Rickermann from guard to post and Maddie Welsh flipped from post to guard.
“You never know when you make a move like that if it’s going to work,” Rhodes said. “The girls have accepted their roles. We’re in the middle of the season and some kids are getting more playing time and some less. Now we can get some rebounds we weren’t getting earlier.”
At 5-6, Rickermann doesn’t have the ideal size for a post player, but Rhodes said you can’t discount her key asset.
“Her heart,” Rhodes said. “She dives for loose balls and she’s a better athlete than people give her credit for. She sacrifices everything for the team.”
The Tigers held the Hawks to 12 points in the first half and won handily despite shooting just 35 percent from the field. Jenn Oetting led Festus with 19 points while Rickermann added 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Against the Owls (1-12) the next night, the Tigers roared out to 27 points in the first quarter and Oetting again paced the offense with 21 points on the night. Bria Garmon added 13 for the Tigers, five more than her per-game average.
Festus has won the last four JCAA large-school titles. To capture their fifth straight, they’ll need wins against Perryville (7-8) and De Soto (4-12), both road games in the first week of February. The Tigers close out the regular season with tough road assignments at Ste. Genevieve and Farmington, which is in Class 4 District 2 with Festus.
Rhodes said Farmington and North County could be the top two seeds in the district, with the Tigers falling into the three or four seed.
“I feel good about the direction we’re going right now. We’re concentrating on winning another conference title,” he said.