Muhlenkamp leads Jay to win

Bluffton played a much better first half than it had against the Patriots just a week earlier.
But once Lyla Muhlenkamp caught fire in the second half, it just didn’t matter.
Muhlenkamp was lethal after the intermission, hitting all of her five 3-point attempts. Four of those came in a span of five possessions to start a run of 32 consecutive Jay County points in a 58-17 romp over the visiting Tigers in the semifinal round of the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament.
“She’s playing with confidence,” said coach Kirk Comer, whose team will play Woodlan at 6 p.m. tonight in the ACAC tournament title game at South Adams. “She’s one that, if she’s got an open shot, we want her shooting it. At halftime, one of the things I was really disappointed in is she only had two shots …
“I thought it was a great team effort getting her the ball. Abby (Wendel) made some really nice passes, and we ran some sets to get her some shots too. It was great recognition by her teammates … executing the plays to get her open.”
The Patriots, who had thumped Bluffton (6-12) by 37 a week ago, were up by just 11 when Muhlenkamp drained her first triple off of a Wendel assist with 4:05 on the third-period clock. The senior took a pass from Emily Muhlenkamp and buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key the next time down the floor, and then she drilled one from the left side off of another Wendel assist on the ensuing JCHS possession.
Bluffton, then trailing 35-15, took a time out, but it did no good.
Lyla Muhlenkamp hit her fourth 3-pointer in five possessions at the 1:56 mark as she closed the quarter on a personal 12-0 run.
She added another 3-pointer from the left wing two minutes into the fourth quarter for her game-high 15 points.
“(Wendel) drove the ball and tried to kick it out to me, and that seemed to work,” said Lyla Muhlenkamp of her senior teammate who assisted on four of the five long balls. “We executed our set plays for me really well.
“I definitely have a lot of excitement going through my head where I’m finally getting in my swing of doing things. I build my confidence off those.”
The long-distance accuracy was nothing new for Lyla Muhlenkamp, who shattered the single-game school record for 3-pointers with 12 as part of a 40-point effort Dec. 15 against Blackford. The previous high was seven.
Her total of 48 3-pointers in 18 games will likely vault her into the top 10 in the state, as she was tied for 16th heading into Friday night’s action. Her perfect second half lifted her to 41 percent from beyond the arc this season.
“You can’t lose her,” said Bluffton coach Karl Grau. “Our scouting report: ‘You’ve got to find her and you’ve got to make her put it on the floor. You can’t let her just catch and shoot.’ And that’s unfortunately what happened. And she got hot. She caught fire.”
Until she did, the Tigers had looked vastly improved from their 64-27 loss to JCHS a week earlier when they had given up a 14-0 run to start the game.
Bluffton led 4-2, trailed by just three at the quarter break and limited the Patriots to 35 percent shooting in the first half. Eventually, though, the home team took control.
“We played much better. We were in the game at halftime. … We competed really well,” said Grau. “But honestly, you’ve can’t just play a 16-minute game. You’ve got to play a full 32 minutes. And Jay County turned it up a notch and we couldn’t match it.”
While the Patriots were struggling in the first half, it was junior Taylor Homan who was able to get them some key buckets. She hit a pair of pull-up jumpers from the right baseline to help extend their lead to 16-8 in the second quarter and added a 3-pointer in the fourth to join Lyla Muhlenkamp in double figures with 11 points.
“I thought Taylor had a really good game,” said Comer. “Matter of fact, she carried us there for a while when we were struggling scoring.”
Hanna Ault and Wendel each added eight points for the Patriots, who improved to 17-0 against ACAC foes since joining the conference last season. One of those victories was a 54-24 thumping of their tournament title game opponent on Nov. 27.
Wendel also had a game-high five assists, and Ava Kunkler grabbed six rebounds.