Charleston – Last year Jefferson saw its boys basketball state title dreams fade away inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center thanks to a scorching second half shooting display from eventual state champion George Washington.
Thursday afternoon in their quarterfinal clash with Cabell Midland, the Cougars were again front and center for a red-hot shooting performance.
This time, however, Jefferson weathered the storm and rallied for a 73-72 win over the Knights to advance to Friday’s semifinal round.
The No. 2-seeded Cougars will play No. 3 seed Parkersburg South at 9 p.m. Friday.
“It was a tough game, but we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Jefferson head coach Richard Lewis said. “The second half, we did the best we could with the foul trouble that we had. I thought we played smarter, especially in the fourth quarter. Pretty much everybody played with four fouls. I thought (one) key was not fouling out and keeping our better players on the court. Overall, we were able to get to the basket a lot more and we made some shots. That was (another) key to the game.”
After leading by 11 in the opening quarter and 10 points midway through the second quarter, Jefferson led by only five at the break.
Cabell Midland kept the heat on the Cougars to start the second half and took the lead at the 5:29 mark.
With Jefferson struggling with foul issues, Midland began to inch away building a 10-point advantage on back-to-back 3-pointers from Dominic Schmidt forcing a Jefferson timeout.
The brother combination of Chandler Schmidt and Dominic was a thorn in Jefferson’s side all day.
Dominic led all scorers with 29 points, while Chandler scored 19. The brothers also combined for 17 rebounds.
“We talked about the two brothers. They are pretty good and we found out first hand how good they were. We just wanted to make it tough on them,” Lewis said. “I give kudos to them, they sensed the game. We were in foul trouble and they took advantage of it. They hit tough shots and there is nothing you can do about it.”
With the game appearing to slip away, the Cougars answered immediately out of the timeout.
“They never think they are out of the game,” Lewis said. “Those guys are going to play to the end and play really hard. We came over a little dejected on the timeout where we were down 10. As a group, we have been around for a while. If we are down 10, we know in like a minute and a half, we can get back in the game. We know that from experience.”
“We are not 22-0 for no reason,” Lewis continued. “I think (the players) don’t want to lose or plan on losing. I know the resilience is going to be there. We have had some games like this before and we have found ways to gut it out. They will play hard to the end.
Cameron Johnson and Jamari Jenkins hit back-to-back 3-pointers before Dominic Schmidt answered with a four-point play when he was fouled behind the arc on the ensuing trip.
Jefferson never wavered and closed the third quarter on a 7-2 run to trail by only three with eight minutes to play.
“(We knew) when we got down to the state tournament it was going to be a battle and we would have to execute down the stretch,” Lewis said. “We had to prepare ourselves for that. We had a similar game against Musselman. We were down a couple of points and we had to fight back. We have been in some games where we had to dig deep.”
Trailing by five with just over six minutes to play, freshman Jamari Jenkins drilled back-to-back 3-balls to give Jefferson the lead. The advantage went to three when William Shively followed with a layup with 3:43 to play.
Jefferson was not out of the woods by any means.
Chandler Schmidt evened the game with a 3-point play after he was fouled converting a steal under the basket into a layup.
In a tie game and with the outcome very much in doubt, senior Cameron Johnson made the crucial plays to seal the win for Jefferson.
Thomas first stepped to the line for a 1-plus-1 with 1:43 to play and calmly stroked both free-throws.
“I have to hit both. That is all that I am thinking,” Johnson said. “We had to get the lead and get a stop back on defense.”
The Cougars got that crucial stop and Johnson was the player that hauled in the defensive rebound.
At a time when some would pull the ball out and wait for a foul, Johnson attacked on the next two offensive series and made back-to-back layups to build a six-point lead.
“I am usual the most athletic, tallest person on the court, so I can get to the rim when I want. I try to be aggressive at all times and get my teammates involved at the same time,” Johnson said.
Two free throws from Dominic and a buzzer beater 3-pointer from Chandler made it a one-point lead when time expired.
“Last year we had a similar third quarter and we kind of remembered that. Over the last 22 games we have grinded them out in the half-court,” Lewis said. “Cam was determined on the last couple drives. He was determined not to settle by bringing the ball out and going to the foul line. We want two points if we can. We got up (six) and put us a little further out.”
Johnson finished with a double-double scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Jenkins led his team with 23 points and Daion Taylor scored 12. Jaiden Gladley had nine points and five rebounds.
