JC focus is on the tourney

Wins have not been a problem in the regular season.
The tournament has been a different story.
Despite averaging 15 regular-season wins over the course of the last three years, with three different coaches, the Jay County High School girls basketball team has not won a sectional game since 2008.
The Patriots had an undefeated squad get knocked out by Fort Wayne South Side 51-49 in 2009, lost 58-53 to Marion in double overtime a year later and again fell to South Side last season. Their last sectional title came in 2006, ending a run of three in four years.
JCHS has racked up 10 straight winning seasons, with the last losing campaign coming with a 9-12 record in 2000-01. It hopes it can put a halt to its sectional struggles this year and extend its regular-season success into the tournament.
“Our ultimate goal is to win the sectional,” said Jay County coach Chris Krieg, pointing to defending champion Homestead and South Side as sectional favorites heading into the season. “If we stay healthy and improve, I think we can put ourselves in position to win that.
“We can compete with them.”
Krieg’s confidence comes in part because his team returns its top three scorers, all seniors, from last season.
The leader is Mariah Hornaday, who averaged 10.1 points per game a year ago.
She was also among the state leaders at 11.4 rebounds per game.
Krieg said he expects Hornaday to be more of an outside threat this year, with the ability to pull taller defenders away from the basket.
“She’s just a phenomenal athlete around the basket,” said Krieg of Hornaday, who also had 24 blocks in 2010-11. “She’s a skilled player.
“Her outside shooting skills have improved immensely.
 “She’s going to be hard to guard.”
Murphy gives the Patriots a one-two punch inside after averaging 7.1 points per game last season. She added 5.2 rebounds per contest, combining with Hornaday to lead JCHS to 11 more rebounds per game than its opponents.
Kassi Hemmelgarn also averaged 7.1 points per game in 2010-11 while running the point. She dished out 39 assists, and the returning leader with 25 steals.
“Kassi is a really, really smart girl,” said Krieg. “She understands the game. And she understands what I want done.
“She’s the vocal leader. … She is a true captain. She leads by example.”
Hemmelgarn, who is also the team’s returning leader with 18 3-pointers, will move off of the point this year. Krieg said he hopes the shift frees her up to score more, especially coming off of screens.
To that end, he’s turning the point-guard duties over to freshman Catherine Dunn. She was one of the leaders last season for an East Jay Middle School team than finished 15-2.
“She has a lot of (2011 graduate) Cara Garringer in her,” Krieg said of Dunn. “She sees things really well. … She can pass the basketball. … She plays with a lot of confidence.”
A fourth senior, LeAnn Horn, rounds out the starting lineup after playing in 10 games last season.
Sophomore Katlin Petro (2.4 points per game), senior Tiffany Huelskamp and sophomore Katie Aker will be the top players off the bench on a roster than also includes Alex Loy, Abbi Dunlavy, Amber Huelskamp, Breanne McIntire and Mikayla Gross.
Krieg said the most important thing is team needs to do in order to give itself a chance to win a sectional championship is limit turnovers. The Patriots averaged more than 19 turnovers per game last season, giving the ball away nearly 100 more times than their opponents.
“If we can limit our turnovers — our goal is to have no more than 12 turnovers a game — we can be very, very good,” said Krieg. “But when we get up in the 20s, it just kills you against quality teams.”
The Patriots will quickly learn how they stack up against one such quality team. They open the season at home Tuesday against a South Side squad that beat them twice last year and has eliminated them from the sectional tournament in three of the last four seasons.
It’s a tournament trend Krieg believes his team is ready to stop.
“They’ve worked extremely hard,” he said. “We had a very good summer this year. They’ve learned a lot.
“It should be an exciting year.”[[In-content Ad]]