LEXINGTON — Mansfield St. Peter’s led Monroeville by 21 points midway through the second quarter Friday night. But Spartans’ coach Joe Jakubick didn’t like the intensity he was seeing from his players.
It didn’t matter afterward that St. Peter’s won a Division IV sectional title with a 68-46 victory at Lexington High School. It didn’t matter that his son, junior Jared Jakubick, notched his 1,000th career point in the win.
The high school basketball tournament trail can be as mental as it is physical. So the veteran coach spent an extended time with the locker room door closed after his players celebrated the win by cutting down the nets.
The Eagles (3-20), who trailed 42-16 at halftime, outscored the 22-2 Spartans, 30-26, in the second half, including a 15-3 run at one point. Monroeville cut St. Peter’s lead to 56-44 with still 4:46 to play and missed a layup that would have cut the lead to 10.
St. Peter’s then outscored Monroeville 12-2 the rest of the way to close out the game, hitting five of their last six FG attempts.
MENTAL GAME: “Unfortunately, I feel they sort of went through the motions,” Jakubick said when the locker room door finally opened. “That’s not right. I tell them you gotta respect every team. You never know. We’re up 42-16 at the half and I think they felt they could just go through the motions.
“I don’t care what team you play. I have nothing but respect for Monroeville and how hard they play and how they competed.”
Jakubick felt his team, which lost in the regional finals a year ago, was too nonchalant in the second half.
“Another team gets the momentum going? It’s just not that easy (to stop). I don’t care who you are. You start playing with that type of mojo .. you get it going .. you play with great confidence … you get shots falling and get a a break here or there and all of a sudden it is what it is,” Jakubick said.
Monroeville coach Al Meilcarek said his team, which has nine seniors, never quit.
“We didn’t care what the score was,” Meilcarek said. “We didn’t want them to dictate how our season ended. We decided to turn it up a notch. Defensively, I think we played with more poise and patience (in the second half).
“They have some great players. It’s hard to stop everybody. Many of their key guys we slowed down in the second half, I think,” Meilcarek said. “To be down 12 and have a chance and miss a lay-up … this team destroyed us last year.”
“It’s hard to put four quarters together. That’s kind of the story of our season. Tonight the temperature was turned up, the pace was turned up, you’re playing the No. 2 team on Ohio … you applaud the effort to stay in the ball game and see what could happen. We were a couple of possessions away from making it happen,” Meilcarek said.
Jakubick said it’s never a bad thing to face adversity, but it calls for a better response.
“At the end of the day, if we learned from this, what a great experience,” he said.
“Who can’t be excited when it’s 42-16? I tell my kids all the time that even a 2-year-old gets excited at Christmas time. But can you show the same passion every single day? When you’re going through a tough time, that’s when you gotta be the most positive as far as teammates.
“You can’t play soft and if I challenge you, then you have to respond,” Jakubick said.
“All year we have been tremendous at it. Today we were just like … a lot of times, I think they say, ‘We got this, coach. Don’t worry about it.’ But you gotta learn and come whoever we play Tuesday, it’s going to be a challenge and hopefully we will be ready for it.”
1,000-POINT MAN: Jared Jakubick scored his 1,000th point with a free throw in the second quarter, one of his game-high 24 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
It’s a feat his father/coach never accomplished in his two seasons of varsity basketball before going on to lead the nation in scoring at the University of Akron.
Jakubick is the second St. Peter’s player in less than a month to reach the 1,000th-point plateau and is just the 11th in school history.
Fellow junior Mason Campbell reached 1,000 points on Feb. 10 in a game against Mansfield Christian. Marcus Butler, who graduated in 2004, holds the school record with 1,983 points.
“It’s pretty good, but I am not really too concerned about personal accolades. I’d rather just win,” the 6-3 Jakubick said.
“It gives me some bragging rights over (my dad). He always bullied me when I was a little kid when we played one-on-one, so now it’s my turn,” Jakubick said with a smile.
The younger Jakubick wasn’t surprised to see Monroeville battle back in the second half.
“Obviously they have some guys capable of making shots. They went on some nice runs and that’s just how basketball is. Guys are gonna make runs, teams are gonna make runs. They were hitting shots and we weren’t taking very good shots. We were taking some quick shots,” Jakubick said.
St. Peter’s played again without the injured Campbell, who Joe Jakubick said remains day-to-day and could possibly return at some point next week. Jared Jakubick said his role changes without the 6-3 Campbell on the court.
“I think I have to be a little bit of a better rebounder, be a little more physical. Without Mason we lose a lot of size, so we need someone down low who can help rebound.”
Joe Jakubick said, “Mason Campbell, to me, is one of the best players in the state of Ohio. You take one of your top scorers and top rebounders off the court and it’s going to affect your team somewhat.
“I don’t care who is on the court (though). We need to perform. There are no excuses. We can still execute,” he said.
UP NEXT: St. Peter’s, the top seed in the district, next plays 4th-seeded South Central (15-9) in the district semifinals Tuesday at Willard at 8 p.m. The Spartans beat the Trojans, 76-58, in the season opener on Dec. 2.
South Central won the second game at Lexington on Friday night, eliminating Wynford, 84-59. Five Trojans reached double figures, led by 23 points from freshman guard Simon Blair. South Central connected on 32 of 48 FG tries and outscored the Royals 45-25 in the second half.
“I don’t think we have an easy path to the regionals,” Joe Jakubick said. “We played South Central and we won, but they have a lot of weapons that are extremely dangerous.
“There are no style points (in the tournament),” he said. “Tuesday night will be a totally different game, a totally different animal with totally different players on the court.”
The first game at Willard on Tuesday matches No. 2-seed Colonel Crawford against No. 3-seed Norwalk St. Paul. Colonel Crawford beat Lucas, 59-50, on Friday night at Sandusky while St. Paul eliminated Buckeye Central, 53-45.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: St. Peter’s junior Elijah Cobb finished with 18 points while senior Tyson Kent added 17. Aiden Stieber led Monreoville with 11 and Reece Kendall added 10.
Both teams shot just 40 percent from the field. St. Peter’s hit 23 of 57 shots and Monroeville 19 of 47. The Spartans hit 77 percent from the line (17 of 23) while the Eagles hit 60 percent (3 of 5).
Monroeville had a 34-32 rebounding edge, led by seven from Logan Clouse. Senior Jake Gurski had six for St. Peter’s. The Eagles committed 19 turnovers compared to just nine for the Spartans.
