Peaking at the right time, Jeffersontown to face DeSales for 6th Region boys championship
With a 12-12 record at the end of the regular season, the Jeffersontown High School boys basketball team was little more than an afterthought entering tournament play.
No one is overlooking the Chargers now.
Behind the balanced scoring attack and stingy defense that have become the trademarks of coach Richard Duncan’s teams, J’town knocked off Butler 52-49 in Saturday’s Sixth Region Tournament semifinals at Fern Creek and moved within one victory of a second straight trip to the KHSAA Sweet 16.
“We knew we’d be here,” junior Lukus McDaniels said. “That’s J’town. We’re here to win.”
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Brenton Moore scored 13 points, and McDaniels and Brandon Gatewood both added 11 to lead the Chargers (16-12), who will face DeSales in Monday’s 7 p.m. championship game at Valley.
J’town returned just two starters — McDaniels and Gatewood — from last season’s regional championship team and started this season with a 2-5 record. Their 12 losses this season have come by an average of 6.4 points and none by more than 11 points.
“Those close losses really prepared us for this situation right here,” Duncan said. “Our guys never lost confidence and stayed focused on the task at hand.”
The game was moved to Fern Creek because of a power outage at Valley High School. There was a 35-minute delay at the 5:48 mark of the second quarter after public-address announcer Tim Dewees collapsed at the press table. Dewees was alert and talking as medical personnel took him to an ambulance.
J’town scored the first seven points after the delay for a 19-14 lead and led the rest of the way.
Rhys Taylor’s basket with 17 seconds left gave the Chargers a 50-45 lead. After a Jaron Sullivan free throw and an offense rebound, Butler’s Dayton Williams made a 3-pointer to make it 50-49 with 8 seconds left.
Butler had no timeouts left and was whistled for an intentional foul with 0.9 second left. Gatewood made both free throws for the final margin.
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Butler coach Kevin Geary was livid after the intentional-foul call.
“It’s crazy the inconsistency we get from game to game,” Geary said. “We had the exact same situation at the end of our Iroquois game, and it was not called an intentional foul.”
Dontre Russell scored 17 points to lead Butler, which shot just 30% overall and was 2 for 18 from 3-point range. J’town shot 39.6%.
“Unfortunately for us, (J’town) has experience that we don’t have,” Geary said. “We’ve never been in this position before. Hopefully you learn from it.”
McDaniels said the Chargers have learned plenty from its early season losses.
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“It was a struggle,” he said. “We’ve taken more pride in (defense) at the end of the season. More talking and stuff like that. Whatever defense Coach puts us in, we’re going to go out there and execute it.”
Now it’s on to Monday’s regional final, as J’town tries to continue the 24th District’s reign over the Sixth Region. Fern Creek (three), Bullitt East (one) and J’town (one) have won five of the past six regional crowns.
“The 24th District has been really good here lately,” Duncan said. “For one more night I need there to be a little magic.”
BUTLER 13 7 13 16 - 49
JEFFERSONTOWN 10 14 10 18 - 52
Butler (23-9) – Dontre Russell 17, Dayton Williams 8, Markel Meriwether 2, Jaymone Clark 2, Jaron Sullivan 10, Jayden Perkins 2, Ben Hayes 4, Terry Walker 4.
Jeffersontown (16-12) – Brandon Gatewood 11, Jaydon Hackley 4, Lukus McDaniels 11, Brenton Moore 13, Antwon Thornton 2, Rhys Taylor 2, Michael Clay 3, Cam McDaniels 6.
DeSales 52, Evangel Christian 48
Julian Bunton and Tyler Klein both scored 13 points to lead the Colts (21-11), who are seeking the school’s first regional title since 1979.
“Glad to be there, but no one dreams of making a final and losing it,” DeSales coach Damien Anderson said. “There’s still work to be done, and hopefully we can put in a good performance on Monday.”
Evangel (29-5) got 15 points from Johnny Djema and won the rebounding battle 38-27 but shot just 31.1%. DeSales shot 54.3%.
“We didn’t really play together,” Evangel coach Larry Miller said. “We lost five games, and the same thing happened all five games. I was confident coming in. I thought we had a great chance to go to the state tournament. … We just didn’t have the energy or effort.”
DeSales packed in its 2-3 zone and focused on Evangel guards Kyran Tilley and Christian Doerr, who combined to hit 6 of 19 shots and score 17 points.
Evangel had 17 offensive rebounds but converted them into just 13 points.
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“We just wanted to pack our zone in the paint and keep them from getting easy layups,” DeSales guard Tyler Klein said. “They’re super physical and big. We just had to fight and get as many rebounds as we could.”
Klein’s basket with 2:02 left gave DeSales a 48-46 lead with 2:02 left. Evangel had two chances to tie or take the lead but couldn’t convert before a Bunton free throw made it 49-46 with 24 seconds left.
Isaiah Chitapa’s basket pulled the Eagles within 49-48 with 14 seconds left, but Brady Cummins answered with two free throws to seal it.
DESALES 15 16 10 11 – 52
EVANGEL 13 11 18 6 – 48
DeSales (21-11) – Julian Bunton 13, DaVon Martin 2, Brady Cummins 7, Tyler Klein 13, Logan Tharp 2, Will Gibson 9, Crew Gibson 6.
Evangel Christian (29-5) – Johnny Djema 15, Christian Doerr 7, Ben Mukadi 10, Kyran Tilley 10, Isaiah Chitapa 2, Cyr Malonga 4.
Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @kyhighs.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA Sweet 16 watch: Jeffersontown vs DeSales for 6th Region title
