Patriots pounce on Panthers in season opener

The Patriots said they wanted to run more this season. They got that accomplished with a dunk off of the opening tip.
One of the reasons they had the goal of playing faster was to get some easy points in transition because they had not been a great 3-point shooting group. But Saturday, especially early, they were.
Jay County High School’s boys basketball team followed up the dunk with three first-quarter 3-pointers as it rolled to a 71-33 victory over the Lakewood Park Christian Panthers.
“We are not very good 3-point shooting team compared to a lot of them. We are better 10 feet and in than we are 18 feet and out,” said first-year JCHS coach Chris Krieg.
The Patriots hit just 49 3-pointers last season — an average of less than two per game — while shooting 30 percent from long distance.
“What that does is that spreads the defense,” added Krieg. “If we can continually do that, it’s going to make us hard to guard.”
That was exactly the problem the Panthers (1-1) ran into.
Jay County first displayed its height and athleticism as Adam Dirksen controlled the opening tip and then sent the ball quickly ahead to Jay Houck. The junior was all alone, and threw down a right-handed dunk from the right side of the rim for the first points of the season.
Lakewood Park Christian bounced back to take a 5-4 lead, but then the 3-pointers started falling.
Houck hit the first off of an inbound pass from Kyler Carvel about three minutes into the game. A minute later, Carvel dropped one of his own on a pass from Jason Schlosser as part of a personal five-point run. And then with 2:07 on the clock the senior guards reversed roles with Carvel assisting on a Schlosser triple.
With his team trailing 15-7, LPC coach Chad Hibbard opted for a timeout. His strategy had been to protect the paint in favor of giving up the 3-point shot, which last season’s statistics told him was not the Patriots’ strength.
“I can say that to my guys, but when those threes go in you can see the shoulders slump a little bit,” said Hibbard, whose team won its opener 69-58 Tuesday over Hamilton. “That makes their team that much more complete.”
Jay County added two more treys — one each from Joey Springer and Houck — in a second quarter in which it outscored the Panthers 16-4 over the first seven minutes. Dirksen capped the run emphatically with a two-handed dunk.
“It is nice when you’ve got height and athleticism,” said Krieg. “We’ve got two kids who can play above the rim, and we’ve got to use that to our advantage because those are huge momentum builders.”
Dirksen and Houck, who were the No. 1 and 2 scorers last season, led the Patriots with 17 points apiece. The scoring total matched the career high for Houck, who also grabbed nine rebounds. Dirksen had five boards and six blocks.
Lakewood Park Christian was able to do some damage from the foul line, but struggled to find consistent offense while contending with the home team’s length. Six-foot-three-inch tall Bowen Runyon was often guarding the point with Dirksen (6 feet, 8 inches), Houck (6 feet, 5 inches) and Schlosser (6 feet, 4 inches) behind him.
The result was a 2-of-15 shooting effort in the opening half with about 10 minutes between made field goals.
“Because of their length, they don’t have to be all the way on you,” said Hibbard, who got 11 points and five rebounds from Bradey Gerke and 10 points from Keegan Fetters. “So then passing angles are difficult and yet they’re still long enough to contest shots. It’s hard to simulate that kind of thing it practice. But it still revealed we have to get better fundamentally — shot fakes, pass fakes, better angles on our passes, things like that.”
Lakewood Park Christian was unable to do anything to close the gap in the second half as 9-0 Patriot run pushed the home team’s lead to 29. JCHS cleared its bench midway through the fourth quarter of the 38-point victory.
Schlosser joined Houck and Dirksen in double figures with a career-high 11 points, and Carvel followed with nine.
Twenty-four of Jay County’s 29 field goals came off of assists. Nine players recorded at least one assist, with Carvel and Schlosser finishing with five each.

Junior varsity
Jay County took control early and was able to keep the Panthers at bay in a 36-32 victory.
The Patriots limited Lakewood Park Christian to just four first-quarter points and still led by three at the half. They outscored the visitors 11-7 in the third quarter and then held on for the four-point win.
Max Moser paced JCHS with a 10-point effort that included a pair of 3-pointers. Holton Hill added seven points, and Garrett Rodgers had six.
Zeke Farnsworth notched all of his 12 points for the Panthers in the second half.