Slow start, rough third doom Patriots

MUNCIE — Giving up 13 straight points is not an ideal way to begin a game.

But answering with 10 in a row is a solid way to get back into it.

Committing turnovers on four consecutive possessions to start the second half and being outscored 18-2 in the third quarter is no optimal way to try to keep it close.

That’s what happened to the Jay County High School boys basketball team on Friday as it lost 61-41 to the red-hot Delta Eagles.

“In the third quarter I felt like we didn’t want to play, we wanted no part of Delta,” said Jay County coach Chris Krieg, whose team falls to 4-3 on the year and hosts 1988 JCHS graduate Aaron Williams and his John I. Burton Black Raiders from Norton, Virginia, tonight.

“Delta is a better basketball team than us,” Krieg added. “What we do is we play extremely hard on both ends of the floor. Tonight in the third quarter we did not play hard at all.”

Delta (7-0) took a 28-16 advantage into halftime in part from back-to-back Josh Greenberg 3-pointers in the final 2:30 of the second quarter.

The Eagles then scored 15 straight points to start the third quarter, including eight from their leading scorer Josh Bryan. The Patriots, meanwhile, had seven of their 19 turnovers in the third quarter and made only one of their four field goal attempts in the period.

“I’m disappointed in our starters there to start that quarter because no one played hard,” Krieg said. “You just can’t give a team like Delta that big of a jump on you.”

The Eagles, who had been averaging more than 73 points per game and beat each of their previous six opponents by 33 points or more, scored seven straight points to begin the fourth quarter. The 55-18 lead was Delta’s biggest of the night.

That’s about the time JCHS senior Parker Grimes single-handedly tried to get the Patriots back in the game.

After a Michael Schlechty basket, Grimes scored four quick points on a heads-up play.

Grimes got fouled as he made a layup. He missed the ensuing free throw, but the Delta players along the paint made no attempt to grab the rebound. Grimes snatched it and put it back for two more points.

He had two more old-fashioned three-point plays later in the period as he scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the final eight minutes.

“Parker played his tail off tonight, he really did,” Krieg said. “I’ll be honest, he needed that. This is good for Parker.”

Ryan Schlechty was second on the team with eight points, and Michael Schlechty chipped in five.

Bryan led the Eagles with 17 points, eight shy of his average coming into the night. Brady Hunt added 12 points and Greenberg finished with 10 points to join them in double figures.

Tonight’s contest against Williams and the Black Raiders will be the third of three games at Jay County. The Patriot freshman and junior varsity teams will host Heritage at 5 and 6 p.m. respectively. The varsity contest against Burton, which beat Monroe Central 43-39 Friday at Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, will follow.

“Aaron is such a well-known person from our community,” Krieg said. “His family is well respected.

“It’s going to be a great night of basketball.”



Junior varsity

Ethan Dirksen and Gavin Lambert both scored 10 points in leading Jay County to a 44-37 victory.

The Patriots (5-2) trailed by one after each of the first two quarters, 14-13 and 18-17 respectively. They were able to take the lead thanks to a 17-point effort in the third quarter all the while holding Delta to just five points in the period.

The hosts held a 14-10 advantage in the final period but could not overcome the 11-point deficit after three quarters.

Landon Grimes finished with seven points in support of Dirksen and Lambert.