Patriots run out of time

Bellmont couldn’t have envisioned a better way to play in the first eight minutes.

It led by 16 at the end of the period and gave up just two points.

Things couldn’t have been any worse for the Patriots, as four minutes later the deficit eclipsed 20.

They had fits getting into their offense and struggled to contain the visitors.

They eventually figured things out on both sides of the court, but ran out of time.

The Jay County High School girls basketball team surged back from a seemingly insurmountable second-quarter deficit to get within two possessions in the final minute but fell to Bellmont, 49-43.

“I was proud of the girls for coming back,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team dips to 1-2 and hosts Class 2A No. 1 Winchester tonight. “They never quit. We had goals throughout the game to try to cut it to this (score) at this time and they worked hard to meet those goals.

“We just ran out of gas and time. We got beat by a good team tonight. I’m disappointed in the way we started.”

Bellmont (4-1), which had lost its last seven meetings with Jay County and last beat the Patriots almost eight years ago to the day, keyed defensively on JCHS seniors Shelby Caldwell and Kendra Muhlenkamp.

The combination of Grace Hunter, who on Wednesday signed with Northern Illinois, and Kenzie McMahon limited the looks for the Patriot duo in the first quarter.

“I know that I can put Kenzie McMahon on a guard or a post or whoever and she’s going to be able to defend her pretty well,” Bellmont coach Andy Heim said. “I thought Kenzie did a nice job on (Caldwell). We obviously knew she was good coming in and we needed to shut her down, or at least try.”

A jumper from Hunter early in the contest broke a 2-2 tie and kickstarted a string of 16 consecutive points for Bellmont. Hunter capped the run with a pair of 3-pointers on her way to a game-high 26 points.

Meanwhile, Jay County was 1-for-11, including nine straight misses, and had six turnovers as it trailed 18-2 after the first quarter.

Caldwell, who led the Patriots with 14 points before fouling out less than three minutes into the fourth quarter, had a layup to open the scoring in the second quarter before seven straight points pushed Bellmont’s lead to 25-4 with 3:51 left before half.

That’s the point the Patriots began to come back as they scored 14 of the final 16 points of the half. Hannah Phillips scored the first six points, including a four-point play, to start a run of 10 straight.

Early in the fourth, a McMahon basket put Bellmont’s lead back to 13 points.

Jay County continued to cut into the deficit as Madison Dirksen, Clare Dirksen and Muhlenkamp combined for seven straight points.

Madison Dirksen, a freshman, finished with 12 points, half of which were after Caldwell was relegated to the bench for the final 5:31.

“She’s going to be an outstanding player,” Comer said. Dirksen also led the team with five rebounds. “She’s getting better and better every minute she’s out there.

“I thought she made huge strides from the first half to the second half with (her) confidence.”

The Patriots trailed by eight when Caldwell fouled out, and a Dirksen bucket with 39.8 seconds left brought the score to 48-43.

“To be honest I thought they all stepped up when Shelby got her fifth foul,” Comer said. “I was happy with how aggressive we were … for them to step up like that I was proud of all of them.”



Junior varsity

Jay County managed just five or fewer points in each of the first two quarters in a 35-24 loss to Bellmont.

A 10-3 advantage in the first quarter blossomed into a 26-8 lead for Bellmont at halftime. Jay County (1-2) outscored Bellmont in the second half but the early deficit proved insurmountable.

Grace Saxman led Jay County with 10 points, and Pacie Denney followed with five points. Aubrie Schwieterman and Andrea Jutte contributed three points apiece, while Heaven Hambrock and Maddy Wenk scored two and one point respectively.