Essex's wild finish begins unbeaten week
Having started the year at 0-3, the Essex Trojans needed to figure out how to stay in games late. Monday’s game was the springboard for the learning experience.
In Monday’s 44-43 win over 4-A opponent Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson, the Trojans pieced together a fourth quarter comeback to complete the upset.
Throughout the first week, head coach Derek Howard identified one of Essex’s weaknesses as coming out flat in the third quarter. In the previous games, the Trojans had not been able to recover. Monday’s game featured the opposite with Essex putting away 15 points in the last stanza, including Gunnar Glasgo knocking down his only points on back-to-back three-pointers in a wild finish.
With the game at 44-40 and four seconds remaining, confusion muddled the game, when miscues from the officiating crew and scorers table resulted in a flubbed play.
The officials, coming out of a timeout, allowed the Yellowjackets to inbound the ball before the full amount of time for the stoppage. With the shortened break, the clock operator was not set, as the officials handed the ball off to Thomas Jefferson for the inbounds play. The Yellowjackets inbounded the ball and knocked in a three pointer after the referees realized the error and blew whistles to stop the play.
The bucket was still awarded to the guests, and no time was taken off the clock.
On the ensuing inbound, Thomas Jefferson was able to steal the ball and get a look at the game-winning three, but the bucket would not fall for the visitors.
Jaymn Vandusen notched a team-high 16 points, while Cody Davis brought down 13 rebounds. Davis is leading the state in the category, having brought down a total of 46 for a four-game average of 11.5 per game.
One night after a tense first win, the Trojans were back at it with conference-opponent Clarinda Academy.
Essex produced quality first and fourth quarters, knocking in 16 and 19 points in the respective stanzas, as the Trojans won on back-to-back nights 55-50. The fourth is when the Trojans won the battle as Essex put away all of its fourth-quarter points in a 19-2 run. The Trojans held the Eagles to just four fourth-quarter points. The last time the Trojans defense produced similar numbers was on Jan. 27 vs. Tarkio – no points in the third quarter.
Vandusen was once again the leading scorer, putting away a season-high 23 points on 9-24 shooting.
Thursday featured Vandusen knocking in 24 points on 12-20 shooting, as the Trjoans beat Heartland Christian 86-26. Cody McClintock finished with a double-double, putting up 12 points and 10 rebounds in the Corner Conference win over the Eagles.
Friday’s contest completed Essex’s perfect week, as the Trojans beat Corner
conference opponent East Mills.
Essex was off to the races in the first half, grow a lead to double-digit lead before entering half at 27-17.
The Trojans came out in the third slow, allowing East Mills to cut the lead down to three before pushing the tempo and knocking in shots from the free-throw line late in the fourth.
Leading the way for Essex was Gunnar Glasgo. The junior unseated Vandusen as leading scorer for the game, knocking in 16 points on 7-13 shooting from the floor.
On the other side of the ball, Kameron Wederquist and Weston Copperstone were the leading forces in the loss. Wederquist hit 4-6 from the floor and 3-3 from the free-throw line for 11 points and brought down nine rebounds, while Coppoerstone added 10 points for the 1-3 Wolverines.
One day prior, the Wolverines were on the wrong end of a comeback by Clarinda Academy.
East Mills, playing away from home, was up heading into the fourth quarter. The Wolverines erased a two-point halftime deficit to lead 33-28 after the third. It all unravled though, as the Eagles pieced together a 21-point fourth to rally back for a 49-48 win.
In the Thursday night battle, East Mills had seniors Noah Richter and Miguel Sanchez leading the charge. Both notched 11 points in the loss, while Wederquist and Jordan Childers brought down eight rebounds a piece.
Essex is left with two games before the Christmas break, taking on Fremont-Mills at home on Tuesday before a Dec. 22 battle with Sidney on the road.
For East Mills, the Wolverines are also left with two games before the break, hosting Stanton on Friday and headed to Nishnabotna on Tuesday, Dec. 22.