J’ville Lions roll Red Devils in regular season finale
JESSIEVILLE — Jessieville sewed up the No. 3 seed for next week’s 3A-4 district tournament at Two Rivers as the Lions turned up the heat in the final 12 minutes to claim a 62-47 senior night win over Atkins Tuesday night at Jessieville Sports Complex.
The Lions (19-7, 10-4) outscored the visiting Red Devils (7-15, 3-11), 15-5, in the last five minutes of the third quarter in order to secure
the tournament seeding. A loss would have allowed Perryville
(15-9, 9-5) to claim the No. 3 seed due to the tiebreaker.
“Senior night is always one of those different type games,” said Jessieville head coach Jared White. “You’ve got a lot of emotions going into it. Sometimes kids come out a little too hyped up, and I think that’s what kind of what happened.
“We didn’t shoot it very well in the first half. I just tried to encourage them to settle in and play the way we normally do. I think we did that for the most part in the second half.”
The Lions held a 26-22 lead at halftime, but Atkins managed to knot the score by the 6:17 mark in the third quarter as junior Eli Robertson made a bucket off a pass from sophomore Michael Dunagan. Jessieville sophomore Landen Daley rebounded an off-target shot from senior Braxton Shifflett, making the go-ahead bucket with 5:37 remaining in the third.
A pair of free throws by senior Tyler Holloway with 4:20 remaining got the Lions’ offense going with a 3-pointer by Shifflett just 20 seconds later for a
35-28 lead halfway through the period. Dunagan put up a layup at the 2:45 mark to put the Red Devils within five, but a pair of buckets by senior Chase Pedersen pushed Jessieville’s lead out to 39-30 with 2:10 left.
Shifflett was sent to the line with 1:42 on the clock, making the first, and Holloway made the putback before a trey by sophomore Jarrett Davis made it 45-30 with 59 seconds left in the quarter. Sophomore Josh Carpenter cut the spread down to 45-33 with a trey of his own, giving the Red Devils the final points of the quarter.
“We played good for the first half, early part of the third quarter,” said Atkins head coach Keith Tanner. “We’re really undisciplined. Our team let them go on a run, and once they went on a run, we kind of got our heads down and started trying to do our own thing and didn’t execute.
“When you don’t execute, you get yourself in trouble. They shot the ball real well tonight. They were in that zone, and they shot the ball well. Threes add up quicker than twos sometimes if you’re hitting them; you can do some damage.”
The Lions hit a 9-5 run to start the final eight minutes, pulling to a 54-38 lead in the first 2:57 of the period. The two teams traded shots before a reverse layup by Shifflett pushed the Lions out to a 60-42 lead with 2:23 remaining.
Atkins closed the quarter on a 5-2 stretch, led by Dunagan who put up 12 of his 22 points in the final period.
The two teams were neckand-neck for much of the first quarter before the Lions took control in the final two minutes of the period, taking a 15-12 lead into the second. The Red Devils knotted the score 37 seconds into the second period, but a three-point play by Shifflett gave the Lions an 18-15 lead at the 6:39 mark.
A bucket and 3-pointer by Dunagan allowed Atkins to regain the lead, 20-18, with 2:29 to go in the half before a Shifflett bucket knotted the score 20 seconds later. With the score tied at 22-22, Shifflett hit a pair of free throws with 1:03 remaining before stealing the ball from the Red Devils and dishing out to Pedersen for a bucket to give the Lions the edge at halftime.
“We had nine turnovers at halftime, and five of them were in advantage transition situations where we’ve got numbers and we make a bad pass or don’t make the easy one,” White said. “Tonight, we weren’t our best, for sure.
“We were a little sloppy, but, like I said, we competed well on the defensive end. A lot of times, that will overcome bad offenses when you’re creating some turnovers on defense and getting easy shots.”
Shifflett paced the Lions with
21 points, nine rebounds, five steals, two assists and a block. Davis added 11 points with four rebounds, and Holloway had 10 points with seven rebounds, two steals and an assist. Daley and Pedersen each added eight with Pedersen pulling down eight rebounds with three steals, two assists and a block.
“It’s good to see balanced scoring,” White said. “Obviously, Braxton is going to carry a lot of the load in the half-court. But we got out in transition, and that’s where Pedersen is dangerous.
“Holloway, he got on the glass. He got poked in the eye and missed a lot of the first half, but overall, I’m just pleased with our effort. We’ve got to do a better job executing, but that’ll come. Tonight is just one of those weird nights.”
Dunagan led all scorers with
22 points points, nine rebounds, three steals and three assists. Senior Austin Hamm added 14 for Atkins on 7 of 9 shooting with seven rebounds, three steals and an assist, and Robertson had eight points with 12 rebounds, three blocks and a steal.
“Austin came out on fire the whole game — I think he injured his hip a little bit, but the first quarter, first half,” Tanner said. “He’s usually not a scorer for us; he can, but he’s usually some muscle in there, hustle player, defensive player. He came out looking to score tonight, and he did a pretty good job of it.”
The Red Devils will face off against No. 7 seed Lamar (10-16, 3-11) Monday at 7:45 p.m. at Two Rivers in the district tournament with the winner facing Jessieville Tuesday night at 7:45 p.m.
* Atkins’ junior varsity boys took control of the game early as the Red Devils cruised to a 28-10 victory over the Lions.
The Red Devils held a 5-3 edge at the end of the first six-minute quarter before blanking the Lions to take a 15-3 halftime lead. Jessieville bounced back after the break, scoring five to Atkins’ six in the third, but the Lions struggled to score in the final period as they were outscored, 7-2.
Kreed Stubbs led the Red Devils with 11 points, seven steals and four rebounds. Josh Carpenter added nine with two rebounds and an assist, Beau Cody had four points with a team-leading five rebounds and Jordan Hogrefe and Hunter Holloway added two each.
Daley led the Lions with five points, four rebounds and a steal in his six minutes on the court. Aaron Ford added four with one rebound and a steal, Charlie Davis had one point with three rebounds and Nathan Pumphrey had two rebounds.