When Jefferson City coach Josh Buffington called a timeout with 4:52 remaining in Thursday night’s game against Lutheran: St. Charles, it was simply to serve as a reset break for his team before getting into the closing minutes.
That 30-second break in the action turned out to be a deciding momentum shift.
The Jays led by three points at the timeout. They then scored on each of their next four possessions, part of a 9-0 run that lifted them to a 72-60 victory against the Cougars at Fleming Fieldhouse.
“We were playing hard at the time, we just couldn’t find that dagger moment defensively,” Buffington said. “Our guys did a great job of locking in at the timeout, and they came out and ran some good plays.”
Following the timeout, a possession of good ball movement led to a wide-open Tripp Maassen, who knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key to double the Jays’ lead to 59-53 with 4:25 to play in the fourth quarter.
After Lutheran: St. Charles missed a baseline jumper on the other end, Jordan Martin posted up in the lane. He received a lob pass from Cole Heller, moved around his defender and finished off a two-handed dunk to extend the lead to eight points.
The Cougars missed a corner 3 on their next possession. Martin had the ball inside for the Jays again, but this time he passed the ball to the left corner to Steven Samuels, who made a 3 to give Jefferson City a 64-53 lead with 3:03 to play.
Heller made 1-of-2 free throws on the Jays’ next possession to cap the 9-0 run and give his team its largest lead of the game at 12 points.
Samuels tied for the team lead with 22 points in the win. He made all eight shots from the floor, including four from 3-point range, and added a pair of free throws.
“Once he started trusting that the ball was going to come back to him later in the possession and he was going to have a better opportunity to go make a play, that’s when you see Steve at his best,” Buffington said. “It was a big-time game from him tonight.”
Martin matched Samuels with 22 points, but it was his passing that proved to be the difference for Jefferson City. Martin had a team-high eight assists to go with his 10-of-16 shooting performance.
“He’s just such a versatile player,” Buffington said. “If we’re struggling up top or with some length, we can run him at many different spots.
“We preach the assist, and we want to play the most unselfish brand of basketball in the state. On the nights we do that, and when we find our toughness defensively, we’re hard to beat.”
Jefferson City only trailed for a total of 62 seconds in the first quarter. Martin drove the baseline for a layup at the 4:08 mark of the opening quarter, giving the Jays a 10-9 advantage.
They never trailed again.
Jefferson City used an 8-0 run to build an 18-15 lead by the end of the first quarter, which featured nine points from Samuels. The Jays led by as many as eight points in the second quarter, but the Cougars ended the first half on a 9-2 run and trailed 33-32 at intermission.
“In the first half, I wasn’t impressed with much we did,” Buffington said. “We played east and west, I thought we dribbled the basketball too much and I thought our bodies were standing still.”
The Jays began the third quarter on an 11-5 run, capped by Martin going coast-to-coast and finishing with a transition dunk to make the score 44-37 with 3:01 left in the quarter.
Jefferson City led 50-43 entering the fourth.
Lutheran: St. Charles (8-11) was led by Demetris Phillips, who scored a game-high 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting, missing his first two attempts. The 6-foot-5 senior forward also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
“He’s very good at just finding his spots and he’s unbelievable on the glass,” Buffington said of Phillips. “And his finish rate is at a very high clip.”
Brady Connor added 18 points for the Cougars.
Jefferson City (10-4) will host Class 5 No. 10 Helias (7-5) in a big Central Missouri Activities Conference matchup Tuesday at Flemington Fieldhouse. The tripleheader starts with the freshman game at 4:30 p.m., followed by the JV and varsity contests.
The two teams are also both in Class 5 District 5, which also features a St. Francis Borgia team that is off to a 15-0 start. Tuesday’s outcome could have a big impact on district seeding.
“There’s a lot at stake when you play those head-to-head opponents,” Buffington said. “And there’s always a lot at stake when Jefferson City and Helias play.”
Jefferson City won Thursday’s JV game 59-46 against Lutheran: St. Charles, improving its record to 8-2.
Grady Payton led the Jays with 24 points. Brody Johns and Kiyeim Johnson added 11 and 10 points, respectively.