'Jacks to hit the road to face Wossman

For the current group of Patterson High School basketball players, the team is in unchartered waters.
While Patterson (23-4) made back-to-back quarterfinal appearances in 2011 and 2012, they have lost in the second round the last three years. That means no one on the current teams has been to the quarterfinals.
Patterson, Class 3A’s No. 5 seed, secured its spot as one of the eight remaining teams in Class 3A and a Friday night contest with No. 4 Wossman (23-8) after defeating No. 12 Green Oaks, 69-62, Tuesday at Patterson.
“They’ve lost the last three years in the second round, but they found a way,” Taylor said Wednesday of his seniors. “They wanted it. They pushed those younger guys to meet their level of play, and we were successful last night.”
Patterson was led in double figures by a trio of seniors. Taylan Grogan scored 28 points, while D.J. Jones had 13 points and Nehemiah Augustus, 12.
In Tuesday night’s victory, Patterson led 21-7 after a quarter and 33-23 at halftime.
“The kids responded well. We made our run in the beginning. We told ’em, basketball’s a game of runs. When a team makes a run on you, you got to find a way to stop it whether by getting a stop or just execute offensively and get a bucket. At the end of that second quarter, they made a run to cut it to 10 and that’s the first thing we told ’em at halftime. Just keep your focus, bear down, play some defense. Get the defensive rebounds, and we just got to execute.”
Taylor said he thought his team scored enough points in the second half to negate what Green Oaks did.
The Lumberjacks led 51-37 after three quarters.
Friday’s trip to Monroe is, ironically, the same area the Lumberjacks traveled on their last quarterfinal trip in 2012 when they made the trip to Richwood. Richwood defeated the Lumberjacks, 73-54, on their way to a Class 3A state title.
As for Wossman, the Wildcats advanced to the quarterfinals after knocking off No. 20 Glen Oaks on the road, 58-52, in regional round action.
In the win, Zach Smith, a 6-foot, 3-inch shooting guard/small forward, led the team with 21 points, including five three-pointers.
Other players to look out for that have made contributions in recent games are C.J. Jones, a 5-foot, 10-inch junior point guard, and L.T. Thomas, a 6-foot, 2-inch small forward/power forward.
“They’re very athletic,” Taylor said. Very quick … They got a couple decent size kids inside, not only (the) fact that they’re tall, but they’re kind of thick, muscular build. They play solid, strong, aggressive, physical man-to-man half-court defense. They’re a typical Monroe school. They’re going to guard you as hard as they can. They’re going to play hard. They try to suffocate you with their defensive pressure, so we’re going to have to protect the basketball, meet their intensity level and then go beyond it and try to stay within ourselves and play our game.”
Patterson, which has won 15 straight, will be making its first round trip of the postseason Friday and will be looking to advance to its first semifinal since 2009.
“A lot of it is just trying not to let it factor into your play,” Taylor said of the road trip. “It’s one of the benefits of having a veteran ball club. We play four seniors and three juniors (with) some major minutes, and they’ve been through this before. I really don’t think the road trip will bother us. They know what’s at stake. They know how important it is. They know that the play between the lines is the only thing that’s really going to matter.”
Additional reporting by www.theadvocate.com and www.thenewsstar.com.