WENTZVILLE • Timberland freshman guard Andrew Jehle got a nice surprise when he came to the gym Monday.
He learned he was going to start in place of junior guard Kenneth Politte for the Wolves' Class 5 District 6 first-round game against Fort Zumwalt West.
All Jehle did was score 15 points and hit a key shot to help lift Timberland -- the district's No. 5 seed -- to a 64-60 double-overtime win over the fourth-seeded Jaguars.
"We had a lot of big shots from a lot of players tonight," Jehle said. "The entire team played very well and came up big."
If not for Jehle's efforts, though, the game would never have reached overtime.
With Timberland down three and less than 20 seconds left in regulation Jehle banked in a 3-pointer from about 20 feet as he was fouled to tie the game at 45.
"I really didn't think it was going in," Jehle said. "Not until it went in anyway. I wasn't the only one to hit a big shot, though. (Timberland's) Braxton (Wagner) hit one, too. That was pretty big."
After the teams scored six points apiece in the first overtime, Wagner drained a 3-pointer at the start of double overtime and the Wolves never looked back.
Timberland (7-17) led by as many as six before earning the victory.
The win was a complete turnaround from the teams' regular season finale just this past Friday, in which Zumwalt West bested Timberland by six points.
"I think the biggest difference between the two games has to be turnovers," Timberland coach Kyle DeWeese said. "We still turned the ball over some tonight, but I think that tonight, we were able to cut down on a lot of those."
While Timberland cut down on its turnovers, Zumwalt West seemed to have trouble getting into its half court set at times and that kept the game a back-and-forth affair.
Timberland led by three after the first quarter, Zumwalt West led 23-20 at halftime and Timberland led by one at the end of the third quarter.
"We did a lot better job in our half court defense tonight," DeWeese said. "We did a very poor job Friday."
The one area of the half court offense that seemed to work continuously for Zumwalt West on Monday was right around the basket where the Jags' Kory Tennant shined.
Tennant led all scorers with 24 points.
For Zumwalt West coach Chad Towers, the game boiled down to which side executed as a team when it counted.
"It is tough to lose in double overtime," Towers said. "They (Timberland) played great tonight. We just didn't come up with the plays we needed to tonight."
Zumwalt West (11-15) also received 11 points from Ty Harris and eight from Ryan Daugherty.
Timberland also got 12 points from Jack James and 11 apiece from Bobby Marco and Adam Ingle.
The win means host Timberland will return to the court at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to play top-seeded Troy in a district semifinal.
"The first time this season at their place, it wasn't a pretty sight," DeWeese said. "All we can do is go back, look at some film, put one good day of practice in and come out and try and execute."
The winner of that game will return at 7 p.m. Friday for the district championship game.
