Mistakes cost Jeff-Morgan
BALDWIN – It’s rare for a head coach to find a silver lining in a season-ending loss.
Jefferson-Morgan’s Dennis Garrett is one of the exceptions.
Garrett’s team surprised many by battling sixth-seeded Cornell and drawing to within eight points with under five minutes remaining. The Rockets held Raiders senior guard Dane Jackson to three fourth-quarter points and kept fighting through turnovers, but it was not enough.
Jackson, a Pitt football recruit, scored a game-high 30 points and Jefferson-Morgan committed three consecutive turnovers late to allow Cornell to pull away for a 67-52 victory in a WPIAL Class A first round playoff game at Baldwin High School Friday.
Jefferson-Morgan’s season ended with a 12-10 record, and Cornell (13-9) advanced to the quarterfinals to face No. 4 Vincentian Academy Friday at a site and time to be determined.
“We made some mistakes, but those mistakes were caused by pressure or whatever,” Garrett said. “This isn’t one of those games where you think, ‘What could I have done different?’ I think we did all we could do. Tonight they were better than us.”
The Rockets struggled on offense in the third quarter after Cornell switched to a zone defense, but senior guard Rece Henneman helped pull them back on track.
Freshman Jalen Torres, who had 10 points, hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to draw the score to 54-46 with 4:57 remaining. After allowing the Rockets to make five three-pointers in the first half and seeing J-M continue to have success from behind the arc, Cornell head coach Bill Sacco immediately called a timeout.
He wanted the Raiders to switch to a pressure zone to prevent three-pointers and force Jefferson-Morgan’s guards into mistakes. The strategy worked. The Rockets had three consecutive unforced turnovers and failed to grab offensive rebounds, allowing Cornell to take a 15-point lead with 1:33 remaining.
The Raiders made six free throws in the final three minutes and did not allow a field goal during that span to secure the playoff win.
“We surprised them a bit. We went down and played man-to-man, then we surprised them by playing zone,” Sacco said. “That caught them off guard, and they had some turnovers, which is not characteristic for them. … Our pressure confused them. They were trying to get the spots they knew they should be at and the ball went out of bounds three straight times.”
The spotlight was on Henneman and Jackson, two of the top six scorers in the WPIAL. They did not disappoint, scoring 15 and 30 points, respectively.
It was Jackson who sparked his team to an early lead. He scored the Raiders’ first 11 points to help Cornell to an 11-1 lead. He scored 12 first-quarter points and detracted attention away from his teammates to create open looks.
“It was big. My energy leads to the team’s energy, and I think that’s a big thing going into the first couple minutes of the game,” Jackson said of his fast start. “There was a lot of talk about (Henneman and me). My coaches told me to play my game and everything would fall into place.”
It also helped that Jefferson-Morgan’s offense was stagnant in the first quarter, shooting 4 of 14 from the field, but the Rockets trailed by just seven points at the end of the eight-minute span.
“That first quarter hurt, but we’ve had slow starts before and came back,” Garrett said. “That was one of the down points there. It takes a lot out you to come back from being down 10 points in the first quarter. They played as hard as I thought they were going to tonight.”
Jefferson-Morgan trailed by 13 points after the Raiders began the second quarter on a 9-3 run, but Henneman and senior guard Austin Clark, who added 15 points, bailed out the Rockets.
The two led a 10-2 run to finish the second quarter and pulled the Rockets to within five at halftime. Clark hit three three-pointers during that span, often with the help of Henneman. J-M was 5 of 10 from the field in the second quarter and had momentum going into the locker room.
Henneman also grabbed 12 rebounds and had five assists.
Jefferson-Morgan’s quick response did not surprise Sacco.
“I knew they could shoot the ball. I thought with our quickness that we could cover those spots, but we fell asleep there in the first half,” Sacco said. “We let (Clark) score, and then I don’t think he scored another basket after that.”
Clark made three free throws in the second half, but was largely limited with Jackson shadowing him. The 5-11 guard was pivotal on defense and held Henneman to four points in the fourth quarter after junior forward Brad Lipke fouled out.
The loss ended the Rockets’ season and the high school careers of six seniors. Though the result was not a trip to the quarterfinals, Garrett could not be happier for a group that was out of the playoffs two weeks ago.
“I’m elated about what they’ve done. They played hard,” Garrett said. “That’s what I wanted. They competed. There’s not a whole lot you can look back and say that we did wrong. Cornell was just better than us tonight.”