Keenan rallies for a 50-45 win against Ridge View

Dillon Jones knew what to expect when Keenan faced Ridge View in the Crescent Construction/Martin Luther King Bash on Monday night at Eau Claire. Jones and the rest of the Raiders had to figure out a way to overcome the presence of the Blazers 6-11 big man in the middle, Malcolm Wilson.

It took a while, but behind the play of Jones, Keenan rallied for a 50-45 win in the nightcap of the day’s action.

“We used an old-school style and just went at him, tried to go through him (Wilson),” Jones said. “We don’t play guys that big usually, but I thought we adjusted. He blocked it a few times, but we knew he wasn’t going to block every shot.”

Jones scored 17 points and collected 14 rebounds despite being undersized. But that’s nothing new for Zach Norris. He’s used the 6-5 sophomore in a number of different ways in this season. Jones has played nearly every position on the floor for the Raiders and had success at each one.

“He has a good knowledge and IQ about the game,” Norris said of Jones. “We’re trying to get him to grow up a little more because he can do a lot of things for us. It all depends where we need him on a certain night.”

Jones did the bulk of his damage on the block. He was able to score consistently over Wilson, and that helped the Raiders gain some confidence after Wilson had seven blocks in the first half alone.

Wilson was spectacular on the defensive end and finished with 11 blocks and seven defensive rebounds. He never got on track offensively with only four points, but Norris sort of knew what the Raiders were facing in Wilson.

“We were challenging him, but he has those long arms,” Norris said. “I told our guys we had to keep going at him. They finally had to go to a small lineup, and we were able to go inside then.”

Keenan (11-4) started off slowly and trailed 15-10 middle of the first half. Jones then scored nine points as part of a 14-1 run to help the Raiders take a 24-17 lead at the half.

Ridge View (10-6) made a charge in the second half behind the play of guards Crosby Harris-James and Walyn Napper. The duo scored 12 points as the Blazer scored on 9-of-10 possessions to take a 40-35 lead in the second half.

Harris-James finished with 16 points and Napper added 12.

Keenan responded to that run and took the lead for good when Jones rebounded a miss and scored on a stick back to make 45-44 with 3:10 remaining.

“It was a test,” Jones said. “With us being a 2A school and Ridge View being a good 4A school and a solid program, it only helps us.”

The opportunity to play competition on the level of Ridge View while most teams are only playing region games at this point is why Norris agrees to place his teams in these high-profile showcase situations.

“It’s a blessing for us to win one like this because that means we’re getting a little bit better,” Norris said. “It’s good to play against good competition this time of the season, not saying our region is not. But this keeps us on top of things and makes the kids work a little bit harder. They look forward to coming to these exposure-type things like this.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 8:44 PM.