Tigers toppled

ALEXANDRIA — Craig Teagle often talks about three things a team can control, no matter where they’re playing: defense, rebounding and free-throw shooting.
On Saturday night his Patriots limited their hosts to 28 points, grabbed nearly twice as many rebounds and shot 89 percent from the foul line, keying a road win. It also didn’t hurt that Brock McFarland nearly matched Alexandria in scoring by himself.
McFarland turned in his six straight double-digit scoring game, lifting Jay County to a 39-28 victory over the host Tigers in the first of its four straight games on the road.
“He played well,” said Teagle of McFarland. “He went to the hole hard. He was strong with the ball. Late when we needed the ball in someone’s hands who was going to take care of it, he did a really good job. … He stepped up and played really well.”
The win was the first over Tigers in JCHS history. The teams had met twice previously, with the Patriots falling by three in the 1994 regional semifinal and by 19 in the ’95 regional championship.
Alexandria (6-8) simply could not stop McFarland, who had 19 points in Friday’s victory over Connersville. He totaled 14 of his 23 points in the second half, including the final seven of the game for the Patriots.
The sophomore didn’t miss a shot from the field (7-of-7) and buried 8-of-9 free throws — he accounted for all of the JCHS attempts — en route to his top scoring game of the season. He also shared game highs of four rebounds and three assists.
“He’s a really, really good player,” said Alexandria coach Steve Brunes. “He asserts himself … We didn’t do a very good job of containing him on his penetration.”
The Patriots’ calling-card defense was in effect against Alexandria when they needed it the most. The Tigers closed to within six when Chance Morphew converted a three-point play at the 5:16 mark of the fourth quarter, but they didn’t score again until there were just 23 seconds left and shot just 1-of-9 from the field in the period.
They had hit for 50 percent from the field in the first three quarters.
The 28 points was a season-low in scoring for Alexandria, and a season-best for JCHS. The Patriots’ previous low this year was 29 against Mississinewa — they held Muncie Central to 25 in regulation before losing 32-31 in overtime — and they have only allowed two of their 10 opponents to reach 40 points.
Teagle, whose team leads Class 4A and is third in the state overall with a defensive average of 39, indicated that he didn’t think the Patriots were at their best defensively, “and they got 28 points. So even when this group is not great defensively, they’re still not bad.”
In addition to the defense, Jay County dominated the glass again. It out-rebounded the Tigers 20-12 to win the battle of the boards for the fourth straight game.
Kegan Comer followed McFarland with eight points, and four other players each had two. Teagle said he was especially happy with the effort off the bench from Stephen Scott, who has been one of the players to see a bump in minutes in the absence of Scott Schwieterman and Garrett Krieg.
“He gave us a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm off the bench,” said Teagle. “He made a lot of good plays offensively and defensively.”
Schwieterman returned after the IHSAA declared him ineligible for the previous three games for participating on a non-school organized team during the season. He was limited because of foul trouble, but still shared the game high of four rebounds.
Krieg, who has not played since suffering a concussion Dec. 21 against Muncie Central, is expected to be back in the lineup Friday when the Patriots visit Winchester.
Morphew paced Alexandria with 11 points Saturday, but struggled to a 1-of-5 mark at the foul line. The Tigers were just 4-of-9 from the line overall, and also missed all of their eight 3-point attempts.

Junior varsity
Jay County dominated the final quarter to pull away for a 25-12 victory over the Tigers.
Darren Bogenschutz scored seven points to lead the Patriots, who gave up just four first-half points and were up by seven after three quarters. Jacob Schlosser added six points, and Kyle Selvey scored five.
Jake Patz scored more than half of Alexandria’s points with seven.[[In-content Ad]]