Overtime victory

DECATUR — A four-point lead slipped away as the Patriots went scoreless over the final four minutes.
But when they made it to overtime, they found the scoring touch they had been looking for the entire game.
Jay County scored more points in the four-minute overtime period than they had in any quarter, fighting off the host Bellmont Squaws for a 39-36 victory.
“We had a ton of girls step up when it counted,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team put up nine points in the overtime period. “It was a great ball game to watch as a fan. And it’s always a fun one to coach when you get to play overtime.”
The Patriots (2-1), who visit Winchester tonight, scored the first hoop in overtime only to have Bellmont’s Mikala Quinn respond with a 3-pointer. But Mariah Hornaday reclaimed the advantage for Jay County when she put back a Maria Murphy miss.
The Squaws pulled even one more time, before senior point guard Kassi Hemmelgarn hit 3-of-4 free throws to put JCHS ahead for good. Taylor Kuhnle closed the gap to one for Bellmont with two foul shots of her own, but trailing by one with just 11.6 seconds left, Quinn was forced to commit her fifth foul on the inbound play.
Alex Loy cashed in the free throws for the Patriots, and with Quinn on the bench Bellmont could not get the look it wanted.
“When your point guard fouls out … it’s tough to fill the spot,” said Bellmont coach Andy Heim of Quinn, who is also the Squaws’ top 3-point shooter. “It just didn’t work out.”
Senior LeAnn Horn led the patriots to victory with 12 points, including a 2-for-2 effort from long distance. Kassi Hemmelgarn added 10 points, seven of which came in the second half and overtime.
Hornaday notched team highs of eight rebounds and three assists to go along with six points, and Maria Murphy added seven points and six boards.
“LeAnn Horn hit a huge three for us,” said Krieg of the 3-pointer that gave his team a 30-26 lead midway through the fourth quarter. “Alex Loy stepped up and hit a couple of free throws late in (overtime). Kassi got some baskets attacking the glass.”
After it trailed for most of the second and third quarters, Horn’s 3-pointer gave Jay County its largest lead of the game with 4:13 remaining. But the Patriots went 0-for-1 with three turnovers down the stretch, and Allison Gutierrez’s free throw with 1:41 left tied it.
Both teams turned the ball over in the final minute, with neither managing to attempt a potential game-winning shot.
“It was a tough one,” said Heim. “A couple bounces here and a couple bounces there and it could have gone the other way. I knew coming in … that we were pretty comparable.”
Gutierrez powered Bellmont with 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. Kuhnle had 10 points and six boards.
Quinn added eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers, and three assists.
JCHS scored the first hoop of the game, but for the most part struggled to get into an offensive flow against the Squaws 3-2 zone. Bellmont took the lead on a fast-break bucket late in the opening quarter and pushed to an 18-14 advantage at the half.
“It was difficult for us to get the ball inside,” said Krieg. “We had to reverse it and keep attacking. But in the first half we would hold it … And against teams that are going to zone you you’ve got to catch, penetrate the gaps and kick … So we’ve got to do a better job of that against the zone.”
The Patriots roared out of the locker room to score the first seven points of the second half, traded the lead with the home team twice and then held on to force the extra session.
Despite giving the ball away a few times in the final minutes of regulation, Jay County did a much better job taking care of the ball than it had in either of its first two games.
After committing a combined 58 turnovers against Fort Wayne South Side and Muncie Southside, the Patriots had just 11 Friday.
“There were two goals I set out for this evening that we’ve got to improve on,” said Krieg. “One is turnovers, and the other is offensive rebounds our opponents get. … Our turnovers were just excellent. We were right where we wanted to be on that.”

Junior varsity
Jay County held the Squaws scoreless in the first and fourth quarters, rolling to a 33-9 victory.
Katie Aker outscored Bellmont single-handedly, racking up 11 points. Nine of those came in the second quarter. Bre McIntire added nine points, and Abbi Dunlavy scored seven.
Devon Schultz scored six points to lead the Squaws.[[In-content Ad]]