‘We’ve got to keep working.’ Douglass aiming to build on last season’s success with new coach.
Last year, Dashawn Jackson and his Frederick Douglass teammates experienced a roller-coaster season filled not only with incredible wins, like their 42nd District tournament title, but also some head-scratching losses that included dropping three out of four games to end the regular season.
This year, Douglass (4-1) has hopped onto a new roller coaster with a new coach, and this one, so far, has included a COVID-19 shutdown earlier this month and a game in which the Broncos held a 16-point lead early in the fourth quarter — and lost by seven.
But Jackson believes this Broncos team has what it takes to get hot and stay hot in 2021.
They showed some of that potential Friday night with a 79-63 win over 42nd District-rival Bryan Station on the Northside.
“I think we have a chance to be even better than last year, but we’ve got to keep working,” said Jackson, who scored 26 points against Bryan Station, including five three-pointers. “Tonight was a really good win, but we’ve just got to keep working.”
First-year coach Jason Moseley knew he had some pretty good players, including Jackson, who was rated one of the state’s top players (No. 15) in the Herald-Leader’s preseason coaches’ survey.
“I figured we would be pretty good all along, because the kids work hard,” Moseley said. “And anytime you put something in — if you continue to deposit, and deposit, and deposit, eventually you’re going to get a withdrawal. And that’s what I tell the kids: You can’t just go and make withdrawals without putting in some deposits. And we deposit every day.”
That includes work in practice, the film room, the classroom and the scouting report, which Moseley said was a key to Friday’s victory.
“You can’t control shots that go in, but you can control how hard you play, you can control if we play on the defensive end and if we run our stuff,” Moseley said. “And tonight showed that they paid attention to the scouting report and the little things. And the little things were what got us going and kept us going.”
Ten Broncos scored, led by Jackson and junior point guard Kai Simpson, who chipped in 20 points. Jackson scored 19 of his points in a blazing-hot first half that helped Douglass establish a 47-26 margin at the break. Jackson cooled in the second half, but he still managed a buzzer-beating three-pointer on a quick inbounds play from more than 30 feet out to all but seal the outcome with a 66-44 lead.
But Douglass had a big lead over Paul Laurence Dunbar earlier this month and saw it slip away in a flash.
“I think that in the Dunbar game, we played not to lose instead of playing to win,” Moseley said. “Tonight, that was my message at halftime: We’ve got to play to win and not to lose. And I think we did that.”
Jackson called the Dunbar loss “a good loss” for the development of his team.
“You’ve got to keep the gas pedal going because any team can get hot,” Jackson said. “After we tighten up on the defensive end and pick up a couple of things offensively, we should be really good.”
Jackson expects the effort will be there from his team and he intends to set the example.
“No matter what the score is, what quarter, I’m always going at my opponent,” he said. “Everybody’s locked in. I know I can get 110% from them on the defensive end and the offensive end.”
Barring more COVID-19 setbacks, Douglass has a challenging slate ahead, hosting a bevy of highly rated teams, according to Dave Cantrall’s rankings. A rematch with No. 19 Dunbar comes Tuesday. No. 3 Clark County visits Feb. 9. No. 4 North Laurel and sophomore phenom Reed Sheppard come to The Farm on Feb. 18. Later, No. 18 Trinity closes the regular season in Lexington on March 11.
There’s also the fact that Douglass has only played the one district game and still has always tough home-and-homes with Henry Clay and Scott County waiting.
“Every game is an important game, because, you know, at the end of the day, we don’t know what’s going to happen with this COVID thing,” Moseley said.
Highlights
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 12:22 AM.
