MANSFIELD — Joe Jakubick has been around long enough to know not to take anyone for granted this time of year.
That’s why St. Peter’s coach had a lengthy locker room conversation with the Spartans after last week’s 68-46 win over Monroeville in the sectional championship game. The 13th-seeded Eagles outscored No. 1 St. Peter’s 30-26 in the second half and trailed by 12 points early in the fourth quarter.
“Unfortunately, I feel they sort of went through the motions,” Jakubick said afterward. “I tell them you gotta respect every team.
“Another team gets the momentum going (and) it’s just not that easy (to stop). I don’t care who you are.”
The Spartans (22-2) can ill-afford to sleep walk through Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal against No. 4 South Central (15-9) at 8 p.m. at Willard’s Robert L. Haas Gymnasium. The Trojans walloped Wynford 84-59 in the sectional finals and outscored two sectional opponents by a combined 47 points.
St. Peter’s, ranked second in Division IV in the final Associated Press state poll and the provisional favorite to defend its district title, outscored its two sectional opponents by a combined 50 points. Jared Jakubick, a junior and the head coach’s son, scored a game-high 24 points in the win over Monroeville and topped the 1,000-point plateau in the process.
“They were hitting shots and we weren’t taking very good shots,” the younger Jakubick said. “We were taking some quick shots.”
Junior Mason Campbell, who scored his 1,000th career point earlier in the season, sat out the entire sectional tournament with an undisclosed injury. His status is still up in the air.
The good news for coach Jakubick is the Spartans are not without a wealth of scoring options even in Campbell’s absence. Senior point guard Tyson Kent and junior slasher Elijah Cobb are both double-figure scorers. The duo combined for 35 points against Monroeville.
Jake Gurski and Jonah Ramey both had big games in the sectional tournament.
“We want to get back to the regional, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” Kent said earlier this season. “We’re not close to being the team we can be. We’ve still got a long ways to go.”
St. Peter’s beat South Central 76-58 in its season opener on Dec. 2, but the Trojans have found their footing in the postseason. Five players scored in double figures in SC’s win over Wynford, topped by Simon Blair’s 23 points. Ben Lamoreaux had 15 against the Royals after dropping 24 in South Central’s sectional semifinal win over Crestline.
The winner of Tuesday’s late game will play either Colonel Crawford or Norwalk St. Paul for the district title at 7 p.m. Friday at Willard. Colonel Crawford and St. Paul play in Tuesday’s early game.
“Our focus is always on our next opponent,” Cobb said. “If we start to pay attention to who we might play down the road, it takes us in the wrong way.”
