Ryan Jackson comes off bench to spark Gonzaga Prep, Bullpups advance with 79-69 win over Mariner

TACOMA – Gonzaga Prep is not the biggest team in the state, but it does have three starters at 6-foot-4 or better.

Its opponent Wednesday in the round-of-12 at the State 4A tournament was the polar opposite, with three starters listed at 5-8 and none bigger than 6-3.

The fifth-seeded Bullpups fully capitalized on its size advantage and advanced in the process.

Junior reserve guard Ryan Jackson scored a season-high 16 points – 12 in the second half – and the Bullpups (22-4) beat the 12th-seeded Mariner Marauders (16-9) 79-69 at the Tacoma Dome.

“It feels great, you know? To play in such a big game, it feels great,” Jackson said. “I was just ready to go.”

“(Jackson) was tremendous,” Gonzaga Prep coach Matty McIntyre said. “We have a lot of faith in him. And with the way the matchups are going, we knew going into the game, whether we were in foul trouble or not, he was gonna have to play 20 minutes or more and he stepped up huge.”

G-Prep faces third-seeded Olympia in a quarterfinal Thursday at 12:15 p.m.

Henry Sandberg led the Bullpups with 19 points. Jayce Swanson added 15 points and Jamil Miller totaled 13 points and 10 boards. G-Prep outrebounded the Marauders 38-22 and outscored the Marauders 34-18 in the paint.

Makai Bloomfield led Mariner with 27 points on 6-of-11 shooting beyond the arc.

Despite its size advantage, G-Prep was in foul trouble in the second half as Jackson Floyd (nine points, eight rebounds) fouled out, while Miller and Swanson finished with four fouls apiece.

“Every game is officiated a little bit different,” McIntyre said. “We just have to continue to play through the ups and downs of state basketball.”

Gonzaga Prep led by as much as 19 points in the second quarter, but Mariner hit three 3s early in the fourth to make it a 10-point game with 4½ minutes left as Bloomfield heated up.

But Floyd stole the ball in the frontcourt for a contested layup, then Sandberg hit a floater and the Bullpups stretched the lead back to 14.

“Those are two great, two huge plays,” McIntyre said. “When things were going against us, we kept our wits about us. And you expect those guys that have been two- and three-year guys to make plays like that when the moment’s big. And they did.”

The Marauders got it back to 10 points on another 3 by Bloomfield, but Jackson hit both ends of a 1-and-1 and G-Prep made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on.

“The focus was just play our game, play great defense,” Jackson said. “Not get sped up by their game and I think we did all that.”

“(Mariner plays) a frenetic pace,” McIntyre said. “We were always trying to get two guys back on defense to limit the transition stuff. I’d be curious how many possessions there were in the game because there’s probably two or three games worth of possessions there.”

G-Prep went big on its first play, feeding 6-6 senior post Carter Verret, who was fouled by 5-10 Kenneth Thompson. Miller scored on a fastbreak dunk and Swanson’s 3 made it 18-11 midway through the first quarter.

Sandberg got to the rim several times and Miller knocked down a 3 in the waning seconds as G-Prep led 27-13 after one quarter.

The Bullpups’ scoring pace slowed in the second quarter, but Jackson came off the bench to hit a couple of floaters, and Floyd’s 3 made it 36-18 with 3 minutes left in the half.

Swanson scored on a reverse just before the horn and Gonzaga Prep led 40-24 at halftime.

“We watched a lot of film on (Mariner) and even though they might be small, they defend the post really well,” McIntyre said. “It’s not as simple as just throwing it into the post and going to work. They do a really, really good job of playing inside-out.”

Play got a bit ragged in the third quarter as the teams combined for nine turnovers and just 13 points in the first 4 minutes. The Bullpups went back to Verret for layups on consecutive possessions.

Miller made a steal at midcourt, then clapped toward a Mariner player on the floor, earning a technical foul – his fourth foul of the game. Jalin Johnson (16 points) hit both free throws, was fouled on the ensuing possession and made two more for the four-point swing.

Jackson hit a corner 3 just before the horn, and G-Prep led 54-43 after three quarters.