Three and D

NEW CASTLE — Pick a number, any number.

None of them were good for the Patriots.

Four — Turnovers before they scored.

Eight — Opposing players who hit 3-pointers.

11 — Long-distance shots made by the opposition in the first half.

17 — Their field-goal percentage in the first quarter.

40 — The margin of defeat.

Virtually nothing went Jay County’s way Saturday night as it lost to the New Castle Trojans 73-33 for its most lopsided defeat in nearly two decades.

“We struggled,” said JCHS boys basketball coach Chris Krieg. “We just tried to force passes that weren’t there. Their physicality affected us. They bumped us away. They kept us away.

“We’ve just got to fight through the little things. We can’t let them bother us. We talk about mental toughness all the time. … You’ve got to fight through things. And tonight we didn’t fight through things well at all.”

The Patriots’ last defeat by more than 40 also came on the road at New Castle — a 79-33 loss to the Trojans on Jan. 5, 2001.

Saturday’s game got out of hand in a hurry as the Trojans (3-3) hit a trio of 3-pointers while Jay County turned the ball over on three of its first four possessions. After taking a timeout already down 9-0, the Patriots promptly turned the ball over again leading to a three-point play by William Grieser before finally getting a hoop from Gavin Muhlenkamp with 4:40 on the clock.

It was the only one JCHS (2-3) would score in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the Trojans hit three more 3-pointers, and Caleb Grow’s put-back with six seconds left gave his team a 23-2 lead after the opening period.

“I wasn’t in shock that we were hitting them,” said New Castle coach Daniel Cox, whose team was coming off a 57-56 loss Friday to Shelbyville. “I was honestly a little bit relieved that we started to hit them.

“I’m very confident in our guys, and I don’t think we’ve had a night where everybody starts making shots. And I think we’re very capable of doing that. Tonight, we all did it together.”

Trey Miller, who hit a team-high four 3-pointers, led the Trojans with 13 points. Collin Blessinger (three 3-pointers) added 12 and McDaniel (two 3-pointers) totaled 11.

Eleven players scored for New Castle with eight of them making at least one 3-pointer.

The first quarter continued a troubling trend for Jay County, which scored 24 points against Hagerstown in the first eight minutes of the season. It hasn’t matched that total in the next four games, combined. First-quarter point totals over that stretch are as follows:

Richmond — 8

Woodlan — 5

Fort Recovery — 5

New Castle — 2

The Patriots were 1-of-6 with eight turnovers in the first quarter Saturday. They had just four points before Ethan Dirksen converted a three-point play with 3:06 on the clock in the second quarter.

“It’s a mental thing,” said Krieg. “We’re not cutting hard. We’re kind of going through the motions. … Everything has to be deep and hard and sharp. Tonight we’d take one jab step and then we’d try to get open. All of a sudden we’re catching the ball at the half-court line because we’re not cutting hard away from the ball to get open. It’s just little things.”

Brayden Sprunger, Bennett Weitzel and Dirksen each had six points for JCHS.



Junior varsity

As was the case in the varsity game, Jay County got buried by 3-pointers and was unable to rally in a 48-33 loss to the Trojans.

The Patriots (3-2) got doubled up in the first quarter as Ethan Hinton poured in four 3-pointers for New Castle. They trailed by 15 at halftime.

Adam Muhlenkamp had a game-high 13 points for the Patriots. Trenton Alexander added six points.

Sam Maddy and Hinton shared the team high of 12 points for the Trojans. Derek Dabor and Isaac French each had seven.