JCHS pounds Bruins

The perfect game is probably an unattainable goal.
But in the first half Tuesday, the Patriots made a pretty good run at it.
Jay County did almost everything right in the opening 16 minutes, nearly shutting out Blackford in the first quarter and using strong defense, rebounding and scoring from inside and out for a 30-10 halftime lead. It went on to a 43-25 victory over the Bruins to close the first half of the season at 8-2.
“We’ve lost to two tops teams, and I’d love to play (Fort Wayne South Side) again,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team has won eight of nine since dropping the season opener to the Archers. “For us to win a sectional, we’ve got to go through them.
“We can play with the best ...
“This group of kids, they just never give up. Even when we were down eight points at Winchester, we came back and won. Those games that we got down, we never gave up. I’m really proud of the girls.”
The Patriots, whose other loss came to Class 3A No. 4 Concordia, never had to worry about climbing out of a deficit Tuesday as they grabbed a 7-0 lead before Blackford’s Tom Lindsey took a timeout less than three minutes into the game. They extended the advantage to 11-0 — Maria Murphy scored seven of those points — and fell just short of a first-quarter shutout.
The Bruins’ lone points of the opening quarter came on a 3-pointer by freshman Maggie Weeks-Foy with just eight seconds left.
Jay County’s Kassi Hemmelgarn went on to score the first seven points of the second period as the home team put the game out of reach.
The Patriots, whose defensive average of 32.6 is third-best in Class 4A, held Blackford (3-6) to just 3-of-12 shooting in the first half.
“Our girls can play really, really good defense,” said Krieg. “I’m proud of our defensive effort this evening. We worked really hard. We had a ton of deflections and there was great ball pressure. We made it hard for them to see their open person unless it was 30 feet from the basket.”
On the other end JCHS shot 13-of-23 (57 percent) before the intermission with assists leading to 10 of those 13 made baskets.
Murphy continued her hot streak on the offensive end, reaching double figures for the seventh straight game. The senior and team’s leading scoring shot 7-of-13 from the field for 15 points while also grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.
Hemmelgarn, who dished out three assists, led the scoring effort for the Patriots as her outside shooting helped open up the middle for Murphy and Mariah Hornaday (eight points, three assists). She buried three 3-pointers in the second quarter and added a fourth in the second half in her 16-point effort.
“Kassi has been about as focused as I’ve seen her the last couple games,” said Krieg. “She’s not letting the little things affect her. If you make a bad pass, you can’t let it affect you. Earlier in the year, it was affecting her. Now, she’s just playing.
“We finally had some inside-out action, which I’ve been waiting for all year long. And I’m proud of them for that. ...
“If (we’re) hitting threes, it makes us so hard to guard.”
Murphy’s effort underneath led Jay County to another dominating effort on the glass as it grabbed 95 percent of its available defensive rebounds. The Patriots had nearly as many offensive rebounds (10) as Blackford had on the defensive end (11).
“I think there’s been one game that we were out-rebounded. But it was like one or two rebounds. ... We preach defense. We preach blocking out. I want every board to be ours, offensive and defensive end, and our girls do a great job of that. ... We’ve dominated the glass, and we’ve got to continue that ...”
Hornaday followed Murphy with seven boards, and fellow senior LeAnn Horn added four.
Weeks-Foy finished with seven points to lead Blackford, which scored nine straight points in second half to pull to within 14 but never got any closer. She also had three rebounds.
Karli Reed scored six points, and Megan Rhoton notched three assists.

Junior varsity
The Patriots finished the first half of the season unbeaten as they dominated the second quarter on the way to a 36-24 victory over Blackford.
Bre McIntire scored 13 points to lead Jay County (10-0), which outscored the Bruins 14-1 in the second quarter. Abbi Dunlavy and Katie Aker each added six points.
Abigail Jones totaled six points to lead Blackford. Casey Emerson added five.[[In-content Ad]]