Boys Basketball: Jackson, Nazareth topped by league foe St. Patrick

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The Roadrunners' Tyler Jackson puts up a shot, during the boys varsity basketball game against St. Patrick Friday. | Scott Hardesty~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 3, 2012 8:25AM

Nazareth freshman center Tyler Jackson has always had high expectations for himself, but the 7-footer admits he’s finally starting to find his groove on the court as a varsity player.

“I’m definitely not scared of anyone anymore,” Jackson said. “I just go out there and play. I just look at it as another basketball game for me. I wanted to start this year and get good minutes. I want to contribute to the team in scoring and defense, and I feel like I’ve been doing that.”

Jackson, who’s listed at 265 pounds, is third on the team in scoring (9.0 points per game), and is averaging a team-best six rebounds and 2.5 blocks.

He contributed 12 points and six rebounds against St. Patrick on Friday, but the Roadrunners lost the East Suburban Catholic Conference battle 59-40 in La Grange Park.

“I thought that was one of Tyler’s better games of the year against good competition,” said Nazareth coach John Bonk. “He’s been more aggressive, and has been doing better getting up and down the floor and communicating. He’s doing things he wasn’t doing early on. He’s a young kid getting better all the time. He’ll keep working at it. I’m proud of his effort.”

Jackson is part of a young nucleus of talented players destined for a bright future in the program.

Fellow freshman Alex Edwards is the Roadrunners’ starting point guard, while juniors John Bonk and Dan Kienzle are the team’s leading scorers.

“We’re growing together, but it’s definitely tough losing,” said Jackson, who had a season-high 13 rebounds in Nazareth’s win over Fenton Jan. 17. “We’re going to be good down the road. We just have to keep getting better.”

In Friday’s game, St. Patrick (9-7 overall, 3-2 ESCC) scored the first seven points of the game and never let Nazareth (6-12, 1-3) get closer than within four the rest of the way.

The Shamrocks led 19-7 after one quarter, and by as many as 13 points in the first half. But Nazareth got within 28-22, only to see St. Patrick close the quarter on an 8-1 run to take a 36-23 advantage into the break.

“I thought, the first half, we did some good things, but we gave up transition baskets,” coach Bonk said. “We talked about that being something we can’t do because (St. Patrick), on misses and turnovers, is probably the best transition team we’ve played all year. We didn’t do things we talked about and that gave them the momentum, and they carried that over to the second half.”

St. Patrick was led by Royale Ewing (16 points, 4 rebounds), Ismar Seferagic (12 points, 6 rebounds) and Elijah Watson (11 points, 4 rebounds).

Bonk (10 points, 6 rebounds) and Kienzle (9 points, 3 rebounds) also had strong games for the Roadrunners, who made just 11 of 35 shots (31 percent) through the first three quarters.