Streak stopped

For all but three of the wins in their impressive streak, Kirk Comer was coaching the Patriots. When the 25-game run came to an end Saturday night, he was sitting on the opposing bench.

Jay County High School's girls basketball team struggled to find an offensive flow Saturday evening, falling 39-26 to Comer's Class 2A No. 6 Winchester Golden Falcons.

It was the first regular-season loss for JCHS since Jan. 12, 2008, when it fell 50-46 to Connersville.

"It was a big win," said Comer, who coached the previous five seasons at JCHS before moving to his alma mater this year. "Nobody knows Jay County's girls like I do ... they're a great team. We beat a very good team tonight.

"I hope that it gives us confidence to maybe get to the next level."

After a low-scoring first half, Winchester (3-0) took control early in the second. A 3-pointer from Kaylie Fraze followed by a steal and score by Emily Sells keyed a 7-0 Golden Falcon run to open the third quarter.

Jay County (3-1) scored three quick baskets to pull back to within two points, but Winchester responded with a 10-3 run. The Patriots brought full-court pressure and some man-to-man defense late to try to create turnovers, but never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

The Golden Falcons outscored JCHS 16-5 in the final seven minutes.

"We needed to turn the pressure up, but they're a good ball-handling team," said Patriot coach Luke Cummings, whose team was 11th in the voting in the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association Class 4A poll. "When they put four guards out there like they did with Hamm inside, if you try to get steals they're going to go in there and take advantage of it."

Comer said the key for his team was trying to make halftime adjustments to pick up the pace. The teams combined for just six points in the first quarter, and Winchester led 13-11 at the intermission.

"The first half was definitely at the pace of Jay County," said Comer.

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"In the second half we hit some shots and we were able to get the game sped up a little bit, more our tempo.

"Jay County did a really good job of taking us away from what we do. And we had to make some adjustments. Thank goodness we hit some shots."

Both teams struggled early, with neither getting production from their top players.

Winchester's Sarah Hamm, a 6-foot-3-inch center who was averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds, missed each of her first six field-goal attempts and was scoreless in the first half. Pazia Speed, the Patriots' point guard and leading scorer, spent more than 10 minutes of the first half on the bench because of foul trouble.

Each team managed to make just five field-goals in the first half, and the Golden Falcons had their slight advantage thanks to hitting three 3-pointers. Trailing by two at the break, Cummings said he thought his team was in position for a strong second half.

"I felt really good about where we were," said Cummings. "Kassi (Hemmelgarn) just played great in there taking care of the ball and getting to the right spots defensively. So we had it where we wanted to be.

"With Pazia on the bench I thought we were still in sync. We didn't turn the basketball over. We weathered the storm there. We just didn't hit shots ... I thought we got good looks ... but we didn't get shots to fall tonight."

While Winchester's shooting picked up in the second half - the Golden Falcons went 8-of-14 (57 percent) - the Patriots continued to struggle. They hit just 33 percent in the second half, and finished at 28 percent.

For much of the game they were forced to settle for outside shots - JCHS attempted 19 3-pointers - and failed to get to the foul line, where they were outscored 9-0. Most of Winchester's free throws came in the final period, when they went 8-of-10 to ice the game.

Comer said his team's goal was to use the off-guard to help stop the dribble-drive, while keeping Hamm and her fellow post players at home underneath.

"Hamm's a tough player inside," said Cummings. "We wanted to go to the other side and attack inside. But not only does she make it tough to score inside, she makes it tough to pass around her.

"We talked a lot this morning about not turning it into a 3-point contest, and we let that happen."

Hamm also bounced back offensively in the second half as she finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Fraze added 10 points, Ashley Meinerding grabbed five rebounds and Heath Hersberger dished out five assists.

"She's a winner," said Comer of Hamm. "We wanted to continue to go to her, but we've got other girls who can step up and hit a shot when we need to. There are going to be teams all year double- and triple-teaming her."

Speed shot 5-of-16 as she led the Patriots with 12 points. Erin Hunt was the No. 2 scorer with five points.

Mariah Hornaday grabbed seven rebounds, and Katie Butcher added five.

"We're upset we lost," said Cummings. "We need to handle adversity better. But we got beat by a really good basketball team. This is something we can learn from."

Junior varsity

Jay County shut out the Golden Falcons in the second quarter of the junior varsity game on the way to a 23-13 victory.

Hannah Ainsworth hit a couple of first-half 3-pointer as she scored six points for the Patriots, who outscored Winchester 8-0 in the second quarter. Mollie May tallied all of her six points in the second half, and Maria Murphy added five points.

Maggie Williams and Ashleigh Maggert scored four points apiece for the Golden Falcons.[[In-content Ad]]