Foul-line follies

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The Patriots took 39 shots from the field and made 21 of them.

They also took 39 attempts at the free-throw line.

And made one fewer.

A 17-point lead in the first half turned into just two during the third quarter and an abysmal performance from the foul line nearly proved costly as the Jay County High School boys basketball team held off the Yorktown Tigers on Tuesday, 63-54.

“Being a good shooter is made during the offseason, not during the season,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team moves to 4-2 after back-to-back wins and travels to rural Muncie to take on the Delta Eagles on Friday. “I have so many athletes that play multiple sports. If you look at my top starters, basketball is not their main sport so I have to learn to live with that.

“We are always going to struggle.”

The Patriots led 30-13 in the early going of the second quarter because of solid ball movement offensively, effective shooting (11-for-16) and stout defense that frustrated the Tigers. But a bit of complacency on offense, including six turnovers, made for a span of nearly five minutes during which they didn’t score.

Meanwhile, Yorktown (1-3) went on an 11-0 run to close the gap to four.

The Tigers carried momentum from the first half into the second. They went on a 9-2 run to trim the margin to two, 37-35, midway through the third quarter.

“We jumped out because we were moving the ball, cutting, slipping, getting easy baskets,” said Krieg, whose team was 14-of-22 (63.6 percent) from the field in the first 16 minutes. “In the second quarter we’re trying to force that score after one pass instead of reversing the basketball instead of running through the offense.

“Instead of letting offense dictate offense we were trying to create our offense.”

Noah Arbuckle, Gabe Link and Wyatt Geesaman combined to score eight straight points — including three-point plays the hard way for Link and Geesaman — as the Patriots opened back up a 10-point advantage, 45-35.

Geesaman had a season-high 14 points, including dunks in each of the first two quarters after stealing the ball near the perimeter. The first he came from the left side, cut to the right and threw down a two-handed jam that hit his nose. On the second, he swiped a pass from the right side of his defensive end of the court and flushed another jam.

Ryan Schlechty led all players with 16 points, while Diaviante Osuna’s 12 points was tops for the Tigers.

A jumper from Yorktown’s Walker Moore with more than two minutes gone in the fourth quarter got the Tigers as close as five points, their smallest deficit the rest of the way.

In the fourth quarter alone, Jay County was 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from the foul line, and at one point missed eight in a row. The Patriots are just 54 percent (74-of-137) for the season.

“Right now we just have to keep focusing and being mentally tough and fighting through the missed free throws,” Krieg said.



Junior varsity

A strong fourth quarter carried Jay County to a 40-32 win over Yorktown.

The Patriots (4-2) were sluggish during the second quarter as their 11-7 advantage after the first turned into a 13-all tie at halftime. Yorktown was ahead 25-22 with one period to play before the Patriots outscored the Tigers 18-7 in the final seven minutes.

Ethan Dirksen led Jay County with 15 points and Brayden Mock joined him in double figures with 10 points. Brinnin Wasson, Landon Grimes and Gavin Muhelnkamp had five points each.



Freshman

Jay County fell to 3-2 on the year with a 38-26 defeat to Yorktown.

The Patriots fell behind 10-4 after the first period and never managed to catch up. They trailed 17-13 at intermission and 33-19 after with one quarter to play.

Crosby Heniser and Adrek Pogue led Jay County’s balanced attack with six points each. Adam Muhlenkamp finished with five points while Quinn Faulkner, Trenton Alexander and Gavin Myers tallied three points each.