Patriot girls roll to 16th win

It would seem holding a team scoreless for a quarter would be a rarity.
The Patriots have made it a habit.
For the fourth time this year, the Jay County High School girls basketball team turned in a shutout quarter Saturday as it rolled to a 47-25 victory over the visiting Southern Wells Raiders.
“We just got warmed up … and our defense picked up its intensity,” said junior Ava Kunkler, whose team blanked Southern Wells in the second period. “The defense transitions into our offense being better too.”
After giving up a couple of three-point plays — one the old-fashioned way and the other from beyond the arc — in the first quarter, the Patriots locked down.
Half of the Raiders 14 turnovers came as Jay County put the pressure on in the second quarter. And the results weren’t good even when Southern Wells (7-11, 1-5 ACAC) was able to get shots off as they went 0-for-8.
JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team has also recorded shutout quarters against Monroe Central, Bellmont and Winchester this year, noted that defensive focus was part of the discussion in between quarters.
“I didn’t feel like our defensive intensity was there,” said Krieg of the first eight minutes. “We came out in the second quarter and we picked it up. (We had) active hands and feet, kept things in front, made things difficult for them. When you play great defense, you’ve going to force teams to make bad decisions.”
Meanwhile, the Patriots (16-3, 6-0 Allen County Athletic Conference) were doing all the right things.
Passes from Kunkler started their run as she dished first to Taylor Homan for a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left in the opening quarter and then to Catherine Dunn for a hoop to start the second. The junior post player recorded all of her four assists in the first nine minutes.
Abby Wendel then came up with a steal and lay-up before assisting on a Dunn 3-pointer that caused Southern Wells coach John Fouts to call a timeout.
“We turned it over a few possessions in a row, and every time we turned it over it turned into points,” said Fouts. “They shot the ball a lot better than they did the first time and we shot it a lot worse. Against a good team, that’s going to be the result.”
The break didn’t do the Raiders much good, as Homan buried her second 3-pointer 40 seconds later and Jay County ran off another 12 consecutive points to end a half in which it shot 12-of-18 (67 percent). The home team added two more points to start the third quarter before Southern Wells finally broke an 11-minute scoring drought on a Savannah DeaKyne free throw.
Jay County stayed ahead by at least 20 the rest of the way, with senior Catherine Dunne scoring seven of her game-high 15 points in the third quarter. McIntire joined her in double figures with 11 points, while Wendel and Homan added eight and seven respectively.
Wendel had a game-high seven rebounds and shared the lead in assists with Kunkler. Homan added four rebounds.
The Patriots, who secured at least a share of the regular-season ACAC title with the win, saw the game as their chance at redemption after struggling against Southern Wells in a 39-32 win in the opening round of the conference tournament.
“We felt we’d play better,” Kunkler said. “We’ve been on a roll kind of lately.”
The win was their seventh in a row, surpassing their streak of six straight to open the season.
Lela Knowles scored the first six Southern Wells points and finished with a team-best 11. Timber Tucker added five points, and DeaKyne had five boards.

Junior varsity
Like their varsity counterparts, the Patriots used a shutout quarter en route to their victory.
Jay County blanked the Raiders in the opening quarter and didn’t allow a field goal until the second half in a 33-12 win.
Kady Finnerty totaled eight points to lead JCHS, which was up 13-0 after the opening period. Audrey Shreve followed with seven points, and Kyndal Miller, Britlyn Dues and Emily Muhlenkamp added four apiece.
Jada Johnson scored four points for Southern Wells.