Jay cruises in return

Sometimes it is in Jay County’s best interest to slow down the tempo and limit possessions. Friday night, it was time to run.
The Patriots scored a majority of their points in transition and cruised to a 56-29 victory over the visiting Mississinewa Indians despite being without a pair of starters.
“That’s really important,” said JCHS coach Craig Teagle of the fast-break points. “We have guys who can do that, and we need to do that more. We have to get out and get easy baskets.
“We need that, because you lose Garret Krieg who’s a good 3-point shooter, you lose 10 points in your post game (from Scott Schwieterman). There’s 20 points we lost with those two out. So, how do you make up those points? Transition baskets can be (one way).”
Krieg was unavailable for the game as he recovers from a concussion he suffered in the Patriots’ last contest, an over time loss Dec. 21 to Muncie Central. He will be re-evaluated next week, but is unlikely to be back until at least Jan. 21 at Winchester.
The IHSAA declared Schwieterman ineligible for three games for “participating on an organized team in season”. The school reported the violation, which took place Sunday, to the IHSAA Monday, and received the ruling late Thursday. The three-game suspension (15 percent of the season) is standard for that violation.
Jay County (5-2), which had 16 days between games, overcame the absence of its two starters by getting up-and-down the floor against the winless Indians (0-1). The home team repeatedly turned steals — Mississinewa turned the ball over seven times in the first quarter — into transition points and ran the floor after rebounds.
The Patriots, who led 11-8 early in the second quarter, used that formula to  finished the opening half on a 13-2 run. They added a 10-2 run in the third quarter to extend the lead to 33 points and cleared their bench to close the game.
“Jay County’s pressure really kept us out of anything we wanted to do offensively,” said Mississinewa coach Chance Young, who lost seven seniors from last season’s 20-2 squad. “It’s one of those things that’s hard to simulate in practice. We watch film and show our guys, but you can’t simulate that kind of pressure. I don’t know how many transition baskets they got, but a lot of them were off our turnovers.
“That’s something we’ve got to get better at. It’s been a problem for us all year.”
Kegan Comer racked up 17 points in leading the short-handed Patriots. He scored seven of those at the foul line, and also had five rebounds, four assists and two blocks.Brock McFarland added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Cade Price also finished with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Jay County shot better than 50 percent in each quarter and finished 21-of-36 (58 percent) for the game.
“Kegan has been playing really well for us,” said Teagle. “I thought his intensity level really picked up in the second half. He’s our floor general, our floor leader. …
“(Price) did a great job. What he did a really good job with was getting out in transition, going full-speed and finishing.”
Mississinewa, which beat the Patriots for the first time last season, finished just 7-of-34 (21 percent) from the field. It became the sixth straight team to fail to reach 40 points against JCHS, which leads Class 4A in defensive average at 38.1 points per game.
Brad Kikendall, one of the Indians’ two seniors, led the team with eight points. Braden Hamilton grabbed seven rebounds.
Teagle said the win was a big one for Jay County, given the circumstances. His team will face another stiff challenge today when it visits Richmond (6-3).
“We needed to find a way to get it (tonight), and we did, so I’m proud of the kids,” said Teagle. “The thing now is we need to bounce back and play tomorrow night. We’ve only played one back-to-back … I’ll be anxious to see how we respond tomorrow.”

Junior varsity
Jay County went without a field goal in the second quarter and failed to score in the fourth in a 24-22 loss to the Indians.
Despite their scoring struggles, the Patriots had a chance late. Trailing by one, they fouled Zeke Lockwood with just over four seconds to play. He made his first free throw and missed the second, but the ensuing half-court shot at the buzzer from Blake Crouch ricocheted high off the glass.
Jacob Schlosser and Phillip Anderson led Jay County with six points apiece in the loss. Kyle Selvey and Darren Bogenschutz each scored three points.
Lockwood paced Mississinewa with six points. Caleb Swanner and Braden Goins each added five.[[In-content Ad]]