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Jackson girls surge forward early, clobber Woodland in FSCB semifinal tilt
It took no time for top-seeded Jackson to take control of a Wednesday night semifinal against Woodland, smothering the Cardinal offense with its hounding defense and running away with a 63-20 victory to advance to the title game.
In the championship game for the first time since 2022, and the first time in bracket play since 2020, it’s a return to grace for a Jackson team that’s starved for a title, most recently winning in 2016 as the winningest team currently in the tourney.
Behind a menacing defense and a capitalizing offense that thrives off its numerous second-chance opportunities, the result was never in doubt Wednesday.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Indians coach Angela Fulton said. “Offensively, moved the ball well. Pushed the ball up the court, got a lot of easy buckets. I thought we did well tonight.”
Jackson (8-0) opened up a big lead in the first quarter and never once trailed as it took four minutes for Woodland (5-2) to break the shutout, quickly opening up a double-digit lead for the Indians.
Pouring on the points early, it seemingly never stopped as even when Woodland broke out of the press, the deep Jackson shooting game kept on hurting the Cardinals.
The last time the Indians had won eight straight games was six seasons ago, and that 2015-16 win streak reached 14 games, the only streak longer than eight in that stretch. The 2024-25 has broken that drought, and no game has been closer than 15 points while doing it.
Part of this new winning culture, the star-studded freshman class’s immediate success along with big contributions from returning faces has put Jackson on its longest winning streak since the 2015-16 season.
The difference, athletes aside, has been a total revamp of the team’s culture.
“The buy-in, the leadership,” Fulton began. “I mean, it is unbelievable how much these girls are bought in. We have great leaders from freshmen all the way up to seniors.
“They just like being around each other and they all respect each other.”
Both Camryn Alsdorf and Addison Henderson scored 12 points to lead the Indians, while Lauren Dorey placed third with 8 points.
Mallary Barks led Woodland with 8 points, while both Addyson Massa and Tallie Johnson put up 6-point nights in the loss, with Massa hitting the team’s only 3-pointer of the night in the third quarter.
The biggest advantage for the Indians, of course, is their hot-headed defense that fouled a lot in the win but, in the process, held Woodland to (likely) its worst shooting performance of the season with just five field goals made.
That success, as Fulton highlights heavily, is the impeccable and seemingly immeasurable depth that’s kept fresh feet constantly attacking the shooter, and it’s working to as high a degree as you could ask for.
“We're so deep that anybody can come in for anybody when they do,” Fulton said. “It's almost like we don't miss a beat.
“I can't get specific because, to me, it's the whole team.”
Woodland drops into the third-place game against Delta at 7 p.m. on Friday night, while Jackson advances to the championship game against St. Vincent at 8:30 p.m. Friday with dreams of ending an eight-year drought.
“Defensively, we’ve got to clean up a lot,” Fulton said. “We know if we want to have a chance, we're gonna have to clean it up defensively and not give them easy buckets at the line. That'll be our No. 1 key we focus on.”