Jay edges Delta

MUNCIE — The Patriots were able to win all four games they played without their senior point guard by double figures.
They needed Kegan Comer just to squeak past Delta on Thursday.
Comer gave Jay County the lead on a couple of free throws with 22.5 seconds left and then smothered the host Eagles’ Landon Sullivan on the final possession as the Patriots escaped with a 50-49 victory.
“It means a lot,” said JCHS coach Craig Teagle of the return of Comer, who had been out since breaking a bone in his right wrist during the first quarter against Winchester on Jan. 18. “Obviously it was a huge play at the end, keeping the guy in front of him and bothering him enough that he couldn’t get a good shot off.”
In a game that featured 10 lead changes, Delta (7-9) took a 49-48 advantage in the final minute when Sullivan scored off of an assist from Alex Fuatavai.
But on the next possession, Comer got into the lane and drew a foul from Bryce Dishman. He stepped to the foul line, hit both shots with 22.5 seconds left to reclaim a the lead for the Patriots and then turned his attention to defense.
Following a timeout, Delta put the ball in Sullivan’s hands.
“He hit two or three right in my face earlier,” said Comer, who had team highs of 14 points and four assists. “I was determined to not let him make that one. I was doing whatever possible to stop him.”
Sullivan tried repeatedly in the final 10 seconds to get away from Comer, but was unable to find any space. He eventually launched a fade-away 3-pointer from well beyond the arc on the left wing, and the shot clanged off the front of the rim as the final tenths of a second ticked away.
“We were trying to get Landon Sullivan up top and then trying to get him to drive it and kick it or drive it to the rim,” said Delta coach Stan Daugherty of the senior, who hit four 3-pointers and led the Eagles with 17 points. “Comer just did a good job of manning up on him. We felt like we had time … to make a play, and I think it was really more Comer’s defense than us not executing. That’s a tribute to him.”
The win, which was Jay County’s 10th in a row, was by far its most hotly-contested of the season.
Delta had a 10-4 advantage early and refused to go away when the Patriots (16-2) tried to take control in the second quarter. Three-pointers on back-to-back possessions from Sullivan had the Eagles within three at the half, and the teams traded the lead back and forth in the third quarter.
JCHS scored the first six points of the fourth to go up 43-38, only to have Delta grab the lead again with 37 seconds left before Comer came up big on both ends of the floor.
The Patriots, who had not won a game by fewer than 14 points this season, were victorious despite committing three more turnovers than the home team and getting out-rebounded 7-1 on the offensive glass.
“We’ve felt that coming for two weeks,” said Teagle of his team’s struggles. “We haven’t practiced very well, and we didn’t play well in the first half against Blackford, Eastbrook or Yorktown. And tonight we put two halves of not good basketball together and Delta played really well. …
“I thought they beat us to loose balls and long rebounds most of the night. They outplayed us. We got lucky and won.”
Trey Teagle and Brock McFarland followed Comer with 11 and 10 points respectively for Jay County. McFarland also grabbed four rebounds.
Jalen Robinson had eight points for Delta, and Dishman contributed six points and six rebounds.

Junior varsity
Both teams missed free throws that could have won the game, and Jay County couldn’t connect at the buzzer in the second overtime as it fell 40-38 to the Eagles.
JCHS led for most of the second three-minute overtime, but fell behind when Jared Tomlin buried a 3-pointer from the left corner with seven seconds left for a two-point lead. The Patriots had a chance in the paint on a nice feed from Kyle Selvey in the final seconds, but Zach Fullenkamp’s shot rolled off the rim as time expired.
Joe Spegal, who missed a potential game-winning free throw in the closing seconds of regulation, scored 15 points to lead Delta. Payton Masters followed with eight.
Nate Brackman finished with 11 points to pace the Patriots, who missed a chance to win the game when a Zach Pryor free throw missed with 1.1 seconds left in the first overtime. Zane Shreve joined Brackman in double figures with 10 points, and Nick Clemens scored eight.[[In-content Ad]]