Zoned out

Down by 10 with 3:20 to go, the Patriots finally got a little spurt of offense.

It wasn’t enough against a Woodlan squad that hit its first 10 free throws in the fourth quarter.

Jay County wasn’t able to find a groove offensively most of the night in a 42-38 defeat while the visiting Warriors got 25 points from Mitch Mendenhall and hit 14 of their 16 foul shots.

“We did struggle shooting the basketball this evening,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg. “There’s games you’re going to shoot the ball well and games you’re not. But unfortunately, we all didn’t shoot it well the first half. And that’s huge.”

Even with the offense lagging, the Patriots (2-1, 0-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) trailed by just four at halftime and two after three quarters. However, Woodlan opened the final period on an 11-3 run to extend its advantage to 10.

That’s when Jay County final got its offense to click — briefly.

Freshman Bennett Weitzel provided the spark when he scored in the paint off of a Gavin Muhlenkamp assist. On the next trip down the floor following a Warrior turnover, Brayden Sprunger finally broke out of his shooting slump by hitting a 3-pointer from the right wing after missing his first nine long-distance attempts. Another turnover by Woodlan led to a Sprunger hoop off of a pass from Noah Arbuckle leading to a timeout by the visits.

That proved to be enough to slow the Patriots’ momentum. Mendenhall scored the next four points from the line, and the Warriors held on for the four-point win.

Despite missing two free throws in the final 33 seconds, Woodlan (2-2, 1-0 ACAC) went 11-of-13 from the stripe in the final period.

“That’s kind of what you expect from seniors who have been in these moments before,” said Woodlan coach John Baker, noting that his team was 0-8 in games decided by seven points or fewer last season. “We’ve dealt with some of those failures and learned from it. And, it’s like, ‘Guys, now it’s our time.’

“I truly believe that if you are going to climb over some of those humps that you face you have to deal with adversity before you take that nice step. It was nice to see guys stay calm, stay collected, hang onto the basketball and make good plays at the end when we needed them.”

Mendenhall led the foul-shooting effort by going 9-of-10 and was just as effective from the field. While the Patriots held Woodlan leading scorer Joe Reidy to eight points, Mendenhall shot 8-of-12 en route to his game-high effort.

“He just hurt us,” said Krieg. “We did a great job covering Reidy. But we let Mendenhall just slip every time. … He had a great game this evening.”

Meanwhile, the Warriors’ 2-3 zone stifled Jay County. It shot just 3-of-15 from the field and 1-of-8 from long distance in the first half. And it committed 16 turnovers — Woodlan had just seven — many of which came when attempted to get the ball into the paint.

Weitzel was the only Patriot to reach double figures as he shot 4-of-6 and made both of his free throws for 11 points. Muhlenkamp hit three 3-pointers for his nine points.



Junior varsity

Jay County improved to 3-0 with a 42-31 victory over the Warriors.

The Patriots built a four-point lead in the first quarter and kept that margin at halftime. They outscored Woodlan 19-12 over the final 14 mintues for the win.

Crosby Heniser hit a pair of 3-pointers as he scored 14 points to lead JCHS. Adrek Pogue and Gavin Myers each had nine points.



Freshman

A strong first half led the Patriots to their first victory, 44-33 over Woodlan.

Jay County (1-2) took control early and had a 22-14 lead at halftime. The Warriors outscored the home team by two in the third quarter, but JCHS bounced back in the fourth to earn the victory.

Caleb Darnell’s 11 points were a game-high for the Patriots. Blake Bogenschutz added 10 points, and Skyler Bee had nine.