Tough in the clutch

WINCHESTER — For the second straight night, the Patriots came through when the game was on the line.
Jay County trailed by eight points with less than six minutes to go Saturday. But it finished the game on a 20-3 run, holding the Winchester Golden Falcons scoreless for the final 2:30 on the way to a 43-34 victory.
The Patriots were coming off a 39-36 victory Friday over Bellmont in which they scored more points in the overtime period than they had in any of the regulation quarters.
"It was a great win; excellent weekend for the girls,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team improved to 3-1. “I'm proud of them.
"This is one that could have gone either way. And you know what, you don't win here very often. And when you can, you've got to take advantage of it.”
Jay County did just that when it finally got some offense going late after scoring just six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Trailing 31-23 with less than six minutes to go, Maria Murphy sparked the Patriots’ game-ending run. After spending much of the third quarter on the bench, the senior forward hit a put-back bucket and then buried a pair of free throws to cut her team’s deficit in half.
LeAnn Horn scored to close the gap to two points, and Mariah Hornaday eventually pulled JCHS even when she converted a three-point play with 2:36 left.
Winchester (1-2) never scored again as the Patriots, who hit 12 fourth-quarter free throws, pulled away.
"I don't know how many rebounds they had in the fourth quarter, but they killed us on the boards,” said Golden Falcons’ coach and former JCHS assistant Ed Geesaman, whose team was out-rebounded 18-10 in the second half. “And that took us out of the game. ... We just didn't execute."
While Murphy was key in scoring eight of her game-high 12 points in the fourth quarter, Jay County’s defense on Ball State recruit Jill Morrison set the tone throughout.
Freshman Catherine Dunn handled the assignment most of the night, holding the Winchester junior without a field goal. Krieg said he thought it was especially big that Dunn stole the ball from Morrison twice in the opening minutes of the game.
"The player of the game is Catherine Dunn,” he said. “We said what we had to do against Jill Morrison was not give her any open looks. And ... in the first quarter, (Dunn) had her frustrated. ... I'm so proud of her. That's the reason why we won this ball game."
Morrison, coming off of a 40-point game in Winchester’s win Friday over Tri, went scoreless in the first half. She bounced back for nine second-half points, but they all came at the free-throw line as she finished 0-for-8 from the field.
"Catherine did amazing,” said Murphy. “She did a great job. She hustled her butt off and we're just real proud of her."
With Morrison struggling, the Golden Falcons went more than nine minutes without scoring in the first half as Jay County built a 12-2 lead. The Patriots remained up by seven at the half before Winchester went to a zone pressure defense that frustrated the visitors and led to a 21-6 Golden Falcon run."We want the opponents to make some poor decisions — no straight passes,” said Geesaman. “We want them to be lobs. What we try to do is read where they're going to pass ...  We thought it worked really well. ... We're just trying to get some steals out of it and we did. It got us back in the game and got us up."
After missing a few good inside looks in the first quarter, Delaney Miller became Winchester’s best offensive option. She shot 50 percent from the field and shared the game-high of 12 points with Murphy.
But Geesaman said he felt Jay County wore his team down, and that showed up in the fourth quarter.
Mariah Hornaday followed Murphy with 10 points, including two three-point plays in the  final three minutes. Murphy finished with a double-double as she grabbed 11 boards, including five on the offensive end, and Hornaday had seven rebounds.
Fellow senior LeAnn Horn totaled nine points and six rebounds, and Dunn dished out three assists.

Junior varsity
The Patriots stayed perfect at 4-0 as they held off Winchester for a 25-23 victory.
Bre McIntire scored seven of her game-high 11 points in the final period, including the free throws that gave Jay County the lead for good with 3:19 remaining. She shot 5-of-6 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Amber Huelskamp and Katie Aker added four points apiece.
Christie Casperson totaled nine points for the Golden Falcons. Kenzie Schwieterman followed with seven points.[[In-content Ad]]