Big third quarter propels Jays basketball to victory

Garrett Parker of Jefferson City goes up for a shot during Friday night's game against Transportation and Law at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Garrett Parker of Jefferson City goes up for a shot during Friday night's game against Transportation and Law at Fleming Fieldhouse.

Quarters don't come much prettier than the one the Jefferson City Jays put together right after halftime Friday night.

After entering the locker room down 27-22, the Jays blitzed the Transportation and Law Hornets 19-6 in the third quarter, turning the game around.

It was like the Jays were marking things off a checklist:

Great execution on offense? Check. (Great interior passing and an opportunistic fast break led to the Jays getting six of their nine field goals in the quarter on layups.)

Controlling the boards? Check. (The Jays outrebounded the Hornets 9-5 after losing the battle on the boards 19-6 in the first half.)

Forcing turnovers with the press? Check. (Transportation and Law had five miscues in the period to just one for Jefferson City.)

And just for good measure, the Jays got six key points from Garrett Parker off the bench in a span of just 75 seconds to keep the offense rolling.

"We had a pretty heated discussion at halftime as far as playing with a little emotion and urgency," Jefferson City coach Blair Thompson said. "We came and got them in the full-court - we had to do something to shift momentum and tempo and get them out of their comfort zone. I thought that worked in our favor and got the game moving."

After falling behind 13-10 after one quarter and trailing 24-12 midway through the second quarter, their largest deficit of the game, the Jays started to play better.

Jefferson City closed the first half on a 10-3 run - the last five coming on a layup and a 3-pointer by Kamari Balton to trail 27-22 at the break. The run grew to 19-3 after the Jays scored the first nine points of the second half on a layup and a 3 by Balton and a pair of layups by Seth Stegeman, putting them on top 31-27.

"Getting out in transition really helped," Thompson said. "It led to a lot of early shots and easy buckets. I thought we answered the bell after halftime. We made some adjustments and just played harder and smarter as a team."

Not long after that run, it was Parker's turn to shine. The sophomore had played just a few seconds in the first half but made an impact by blocking the Hornets' final shot of the half.

He came off the bench in the third and immediately hit a jumper, added a layup 29 seconds later and another jumper 33 seconds after that.

"Honestly, I was nervous at first," Parker said with a smile. "It was my first time playing varsity for a consistent amount of time. But I was excited - it was great to be out there with my teammates."

Parker added hitting his first three shots was easy after making the first.

"After that first one, I just felt like I should start shooting more," he said.

Parker had eight of the Jays' 10 points off the bench in the game.

"It was really his first significant varsity minutes and he was ready," Thompson said. "He wasn't scared and he came out and hit shots. ... We knew he could do it - he's been playing really well at the JV level in the past couple weeks, so we thought he had earned a shot and we gave it to him."

After Parker's spurt, Jefferson City's Gunnar See had a pair of layups to end the quarter, giving the Jays their biggest lead of the night at 41-33.

But the Hornets made their first seven shots of the final quarter to make things interesting, eventually retaking the lead at 49-48 with 2:09 left.

However, Transportation and Law wouldn't make another field goal after that, while the Jays made 8-of-10 free throws in the period to escape with the win.

"(Free-throw shooting) has been an Achilles heel for us in some games," Thompson said. "We've lost a lot of games by around three or four points and left 10 free throws out there. The fact that we hit some of them down the stretch is good for us."

Balton ended up leading the Jays with 16 points, while Stegeman had 13. Spence, who missed the rest of the first half after drawing two fouls in the first two minutes, led the Jays with five rebounds.

Charles James paced the Hornets with 15 points, while Maurice Golden had 13 points and was perfect on the night - 6-of-6 from the field and 1-of-1 from the free-throw line. Jamarr Williams had nine points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

The Jays are now 12-6 and return to action Tuesday when they host Rock Bridge.

"We talked (before Friday's game) about how we hadn't played a complete game here at home," Thompson said. "I don't know that we did that tonight, but we played well at the end when it counted, rather than up at the front."