Miscues bedevil JC

RICHMOND — The Patriots shot better from the field, grabbed more rebounds and blocked more shots. Thanks to turnovers, none of that mattered.
Jay County gave the ball away 21 times, including eight of its first 10 possessions, and couldn’t quite dig out of the early hole in a 51-45 loss to the Richmond Red Devils.
“You can’t turn the ball over eight out of your first 10 possessions and expect to win the ball game,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg. “Obviously our intensity and effort from the second quarter on wasn’t too bad. But when you dig yourself a huge hole like that to begin the game, it’s really hard to come out of.”
After struggling early and falling behind 11-2, the Patriots (11-6) spent the rest of the game trying to rally.
They pulled to within five at the end of the opening quarter, and got within one on a Mariah Hornaday 3-pointer at the 2:46 mark of the second. But the Red Devils scored the final five points of the opening half and first seven of the second, again aided by JCHS turnovers, to reclaim control.
“We knew they were a good team and they weren’t going to go away, and we wanted to come out and take control,” said Richmond coach Casey Pohlenz of his team’s start to the second half. “It was really important to come out strong in the third quarter and traditionally that’s been a struggle for us. So I was proud of them for being able to do that.”
Jay County again fought back, with Kassi Hemmelgarn’s four fourth-quarter three-pointers keying the effort. It pulled to within 46-43 after trailing by 16 early in the final period, but couldn’t get any closer.
Mackenzie Taylor, who missed four of her first five foul shots, went 4-for-4 in the final minute to help ice the win for the Red Devils (11-7). That effort capped a 19-point night that included three 3-pointers.
“The Taylor girl is just really impressive for a freshman,” said Krieg. “She’s going to be a fine basketball player for them.”
The Patriots were efficient when they managed to keep control of the ball, shooting 18-of-35 (51 percent), compared to 38 percent for Richmond. But the turnover differential — the Red Devils had just five for the game — resulted in 10 extra field goal attempts and 20 more free throws for the home team.
“We just couldn’t see through the defense,” said Krieg, whose team was without freshman point guard Catherine Dunn for the second straight game because of a shoulder injury. “The positive is when we get it down there, we’re shooting over 50 percent from the field. …“In the first half, we had 28 possessions and we had 14 turnovers. Of those 14 possessions, we scored eight of them.
“We’ve just got to take care of the basketball better than we are right now.”
The teams traded baskets to open the game before the turnover issues allowed Richmond to take control. Mackenzie Taylor scored seven straight points to start the 9-0 run, and Brooklyn Taylor added a pair of free throws.
“We felt like we had the edge in athleticism and we wanted to come out and be aggressive and get the game in our tempo,” said Pohlenz, who got eight points apiece from Maddie Farris and Whitney Hampton. “We were fortunate to do that long enough that when it slowed down, we had enough cushion to make up for it.
“They’re such a good half-court defensive team that we knew that we had to get stuff out of our transition game. We knew that we had to get up-tempo or we were going to struggle.”
Hemmelgarn’s 3-point shooting in the fourth quarter gave her a team-high 16 points for the Patriots. Hornaday added 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go along with nine rebound and six blocks.
Maria Murphy also had nine rebounds, and Hemmelgarn finished with six boards and three assists.

Junior varsity
The Patriots couldn’t overcome a scoreless second quarter in a 31-25 loss to Richmond.
Bre McIntire finished with 10 points for Jay County, which was outscored 5-0 in the second quarter. Katlin Petro added eight points, and Abbi Dunlavy scored six.
Bailey Hilliard turned in a game-high 15 points for the Red Devils. Cherice Jetta tallied four points.[[In-content Ad]]