Caldwell sets record

Kendal Garringer drove toward the right corner.

As she was running out of real estate, she jumped and passed to classmate Shelby Caldwell at the block. Caldwell muscled her way through a pair of Bruin defenders and into the history books.

Caldwell, a Jay County High School senior, scored her 41st and final point of the night midway through the fourth quarter Thursday to set a new single game scoring record as she led the Patriot girls basketball team to a 77-17 drubbing of the Blackford Bruins.

“I’m on cloud nine,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to break that record since my 33-point game against Bluffton (Jan. 5). Shannon (Freeman) has been on me about breaking it, so it feels good to do this for myself, her and my team.”

Caldwell’s 41 points surpasses former teammate Lyla Muhlenkamp and 1986 JCHS graduate Freeman, who is also the program’s all-time leading scorer (1,458 points). Muhlenkamp, a 2016 grad, set the school record for 3-pointers in a game with 12 on her way to a 40-point effort Dec. 15, 2015, also against Blackford.

“Exciting and humbling,” Caldwell said. “I was so excited that I was able to break it, and I just wanted to share it with my team, my coach (Kirk Comer), Shannon and my dad (Rickie).”

Caldwell and the Patriots (7-6), who moved above .500 for the first time this season, dominated from the start Thursday. Caldwell scored 18 points in the first quarter alone, helping stake a 27-0 advantage after one period.

She went into halftime sitting at 23 points — Jay County led 40-7 — and added 10 more in the third to sit at 33 with eight minutes to play.

But she was clueless as to how close she was to the record.

“Honestly, I had no idea how many I had until coach said something at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” she said. “He told me I only needed seven more points to tie.”

Caldwell admitted she got nervous and subsequently air-mailed a 3-pointer to begin the fourth quarter.

She settled down, reached 35 points just 38 seconds into the final period, and totaled 37 less than a minute later as she got passes at the block and put up buckets between Blackford defenders.

With 5:22 to play a basket pushed her total to 39, and her record-setting bucket came with 4:27 left as the only remaining starter on the court for Jay County.

“I thought I still had another point to go, but then all the girls on the bench started cheering and it kind of sunk in that I actually did it,”?Caldwell said.

And much like she has done for most of her career, Caldwell was quick to praise others for her individual accomplishments.

“They had a lot of great passes to me where I could get a good shot,” she said. “And in the end, coach ran plays for me to break it. My dad has also been pushing me for a while because this is something that I wanted but needed an little extra push to believe I could actually do it.

“Without those things combined, I wouldn’t have broken the record and I definitely wouldn’t be the player I am this year.”

Hannah Phillips scored 12 points in support of Caldwell, and Kendra Muhlenkamp chipped in eight points.

Jay County’s junior varsity team moved to 8-5 on the season with a 36-12 victory over Blackford.

Grace Saxman led the way with 16 points, and Pacie Denney contributed seven points.