Basketball or volleyball for two-sport star?

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This article was published 21/02/2018 (2254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sam Jackman is a volleyball player who moonlights on the basketball court. Frankly, the hobby is threatening to take over.

The Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association does not keep single-game scoring records, but the astonishing 97 points scored by the 6-4 Morris Mavericks guard/forward in a 111-105 victory over the Souris Sabres last Saturday is believed to be a new standard for scoring in a provincial high school basketball game.

Earlier this week, Basketball Manitoba announced Jackman had smashed the existing mark of 83 points set by Manny Wood of St. John’s-Ravenscourt in a 115-25 blowout win over Kenora’s Beaver Brae in 2013.

Playing for a small school like Morris, which has an enrolment of 450 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 and plays at the AA level, shouldn’t diminish Jackman’s achievement.

He scored 19 points in the first quarter, 21 in each of the second and third quarters before adding a whopping 36 in the fourth to cap the victory. All the while, he was locked in a shot-for-shot scoring duel with Souris ace Prince Zapanta, who finished the game with 58 points of his own in the fifth-place game at the Souris Invitational.

Jackman hit five three-pointers, but scored most of his points on layups, an array of short jumpers and six dunks. He was trying to conserve his energy, because the Mavericks’ six-man squad was further taxed when one of the squad’s regulars fouled out of the game in the third quarter.

“The first quarter I didn’t have to play as hard as I usually do,” Jackman said. “They knocked some shots and, as the game progressed, I started to see how they were double-teaming certain players and started to key on some guys. One of my teammates (Kevin Stuski) came up with a pretty decent in-bounds play that worked, so I was just using it.

“We were definitely going shot for shot in that game. I wasn’t too pleased about it. At one point we did have a 10-, 12-point lead. Then the lead got smaller, and then they were ahead by a couple of points. Probably at the end of the third, he said, ‘I’ve got a good idea for an in-bounds play,’ and it seemed to work very well. We ran it four or five times.”

Jackman’s scoring prowess hasn’t been much of a surprise.

The 17-year-old was averaging 52 points per game for the Mavs, who were winless in zone competition before being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs earlier this week.

His previous high this season was a 61-point outing in an exhibition game against Rosenort.

“We know our strengths, and our guys are all for it, I would say,” Morris head coach Rick Ricard said of Jackman’s dominant role. “They were fully in the moment as well, and helping Sam as best they could. There’s no doubt that Sam is by far our best player. They played hard just to keep the game close.”

The Mavericks played a limited schedule this year, allowing Jackman to pursue his first love — volleyball — at the same time.

He suited up for Morris School as a middle during the high school season, and plays club volleyball with the WinMan organization in Winnipeg in the off-season. Jackman, who has a leaping reach of 11-foot-4, has received recruiting interest from the volleyball programs at the University of Winnipeg, Western Ontario and Grand Canyon University, an NCAA school. But he admits his success in basketball has prompted him to rethink his future.

“After the weekend, people started to email, and I thought maybe I should open it up a little bit,” Jackman said. “I’m pretty unsure of where I want to go yet, but given the way things have gone recently, I want to reconsider.”

Added Ricard: “Before this week, he considered himself a volleyball player. He’s an excellent volleyball player as well, but I think after this weekend he might have a couple of decisions to make. He’s definitely got some offers, and he plays club volleyball in the city. He’s an athlete. He’ll play somewhere next year.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14