Seven straight

Attack, attack, attack.

That was the Patriots’ mentality. And it paid off.

Jay County scored half of its second-quarter points from the free-throw line and got the visiting South Adams Starfires into deep foul trouble Saturday as it rolled to a 59-39 victory.

“We started out going inside, which was the game plan,” said JCHS girls basketball coach Kirk Comer, whose team has now won seven straight after a 1-5 start. “We tried to get inside and use our height to our advantage.

“We felt like that was our strength tonight.”

The Patriots (8-5, 3-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) attacked the basket against South Adams, scoring their final five points of the first half from the line. They hit nine free throws in all in the opening 16 minutes.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the resulting fouls crippled the Starfires. Peyton Pries, who hit an early 3-pointer, picked up three fouls in the first four minutes of the game. Lydia Loshe, the team’s other top scorer, was tagged with her third just before halftime and then got her fourth at the 4:20 mark of the third quarter.

That left SAHS (6-4, 2-1 ACAC) limited offensively. Pries and Loshe shot a combined 42 percent from the field and finished with 14 and 11 points, respectively. The rest of the squad was at 25 percent.

“As young as we are, we can’t go overly deep into our bench and expect a lot of minutes,” said South Adams coach Brett Freeman. “That really put a sting to us. …

“The telling factor tonight was the foul trouble.

“We had a couple of girls tonight who weren’t shooting it quite like we’re used to … So that hurt us too. When you’ve only got so many weapons, there’s only so much you can do.”

Jay County trailed by one after five consecutive points from Loshe to open the second quarter, but the rest of the half belonged to the Patriots. They finished on a 14-4 run that included a 3-pointer from junior Pacey Denney and six points from senior Hallie Fields, who matched freshman Renna Schwieterman with nine free-throw attempts in the game.

“I just feel like last year I ended the season very aggressive and I ended scoring more and just working the ball and getting more open shots,” said Fields, who totaled nine points and also blocked a couple of shots. “It just kind of felt like it happened tonight again.”

JCHS then opened the second half with a 12-4 run that extended its lead to 17 points.

Schwieterman’s 23 points were a team-high for the Patriots and pushed her season average to 18.1. She also grabbed 13 rebounds for her second double-double of the week following Tuesday’s 18-point, 15-rebound effort against Blackford.

Madison Dirksen followed with 10 points, and Izzy Rodgers and Grace Saxman each chipped in six. Rodgers also finished with seven rebounds and four assists.

Jay County, which last lost 60-47 to Northeastern on Dec. 3, has won five of its seven games during the current streak by double figures. The only tight contests have been a 45-40 victory over Fort Recovery and Thursday’s 35-33 win over Heritage.

“The big thing is we’ve got more confidence,” said Comer, whose squad has 11 days off before hosting Yorktown (7-4) on Jan. 2. “Our kids play with a lot more confidence. We’ve got more people with confidence. So we’re getting a deeper team.

“We’re becoming better defensively. People are starting to know their roles better.”

The only negative Saturday for the Patriots was that Woodlan clobbered Heritage 39-21 to take command of the race for the ACAC regular-season title. The Warriors, who defeated JCHS 55-51 Nov. 29, sit atop the league at 5-0.

The teams are slated to meet again in the opening round of the ACAC tournament at 6 p.m. Jan. 14 in Woodburn.