'Huge spark': Ashley Helle scores career high in Jackson girls basketball win at McKinley
CANTON Playing in a historic venue against a tenacious defensive-minded opponent might not be a recipe for success for most young players. Jackson's Ashley Helle showed the crowd at the Memorial Field House on Wednesday that she is no ordinary freshman.
Helle made four 3-pointers and scored a career-high 17 points as the Polar Bears defeated McKinley 59-41. The win kept the Polar Bears (10-2, 7-0) unbeaten in the Federal League and was their eighth win in the last 10 games against the Bulldogs (4-7, 3-4) .
"For a freshman to come into a place like the Field House and have that kind of game says a lot about her mental toughness," Jackson head coach Anthony Butch. "She's had a really good season for us and she caught fire early for us tonight. She was a huge spark for us."
Though Helle looked calm on the outside she was a bit nervous coming into the game.
"This game is going to give me a lot of confidence going forward," Helle said. "Coming into a historic place like this is honestly a little scary but I tried not to think about it and just push through it."
Megan Campbell added 13 for Jackson while Ashley Lahmers chipped in 12 points for the Polar Bears. A big second quarter was key for Jackson. The Polar Bears outscored McKinley 28-10 in that period to take a 42-19 lead into halftime.
"That was a fun stretch of basketball," Butch said. "We were moving the ball around really well and we were knocking down all of our shots. We looked really good."
Mya Taylor led McKinley with 16 points. Tianni Hilliard also had 12 points for the Bulldogs before fouling out. Taylor and Hilliard tied for the team lead in rebounds with six each. McKinley was forced to play without second-leading scorer KyLonee Foster, who missed the game due to an injury.
"We basically only had five players available for us tonight," Bryant Bowden said. "We've been battling through some injuries. Mya is coming off a concussion and working her way back in. We knew it might be a struggle tonight. We know they could shoot and those shooters got open in the second quarter."
Despite the big halftime deficit, McKinley showed a lot of heart in the second half. The Bulldogs outscored Jackson 16-6 in the third quarter and cut the Polar Bear lead to as few as 10 points in the fourth quarter.
"I'm very proud of the effort the girls showed," Bowden said. "The injury to Kylonee forced us to play some girls in different positions and there were some times where we were still working through that and getting to the places we needed to be defensively. You also have to give Jackson a lot of credit. They shot the lights out and coach Butch does a really great job with his team."
A well placed timeout by Butch seemed to drive the Polar Bears to finish the game on a high note. Jackson never let McKinley cut the deficit to single digits and ended up extending the lead back out to 18 points by the end of the game.
"Coach Butch just told us that we couldn't let up against a team like this," Helle said. "He told us to go out and keep our foot on the gas pedal all the way until the end and that's what we tried to do."
Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com
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This article originally appeared on The Repository: Freshman Ashley Helle leads Jackson High School girls basketball
