Krueger a nightmare

By CHRIS SCHANZ

The Commercial Review

FORT WAYNE — The Schlechty brothers hit consecutive baskets from the right side.

The first, from Michael, gave the Patriots a one-point lead. The second, by Ryan, extended the advantage.

Two Patriot giveaways led to back-to-back Zak Krueger buckets at the other end and the Spartans ran away.

Six straight Krueger points helped swing momentum away from the Jay County High School boys basketball team, and the Homestead junior didn't miss much from the field as the Class 4A Spartans surged past the Patriots on Monday, 72-37.

“They make you pay for your turnovers,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team has now dropped consecutive games after a Friday night loss to Norwell. “They are No. 9 in the state for a reason.”

Krueger, a 5-foot, 10-inch point guard, shot from anywhere on the court. Be it a pull-up jumper from the free-throw line, the left wing or a fadeaway from the baseline, he was spot on. He finished 11-for-14 from the field, including two 3-pointers from the left corner in the third quarter, and finished with a game-high 24 points.

“He is a really, really solid basketball player,” Krieg said. “We knew that coming in. We just had to stay tight with him. Too many times with him we didn't, especially there in the second half. We left him wide open two times for threes. You can't do that to one of their best players.”

His fast break layups in the first quarter staked the Spartans (19-2) to a 10-9 lead over Jay County (14-7), which forced Krieg into a timeout.

Later in the period he had a layup from the left side, and Alec Grinsfelder followed with a pair of free throws as the Spartans led 14-9 after one quarter.

Krueger scored two more times on Patriot turnovers, once on a fast break lay-in and another on a jumper.

Homestead used a string of 13 consecutive points, 10 from Krueger, to grab a 19-11 lead midway through the second quarter. Krueger had 16 points at half.

After its slow start, the Homestead defense clamped down on Jay County to the tune of 18 turnovers, a dozen of which were in the first half.

“It's all about momentum,” Krieg said. “We had it to start. Once they got it they just ran with it. When you're talking one of the top 10 teams in the state of Indiana, they're going to make you pay and their (forced) turnovers made us pay.”

The Patriots' 18 turnovers are the most since it had the same total in a Dec. 29 loss to Muncie Central.

Krueger sandwiched his 3-pointers around a triple from Trent Loomis — he finished with six points — as the Spartans pushed the lead to 20 early in the third. Homestead outscored Jay County 24-5 after intermission.

Luke Goode was second for the Spartans with 12 points.

Wyatt Geesaman led the Patriots with eight points; all but two came in the second half. He also helped limit Goode to nearly five points below his season average.

Michael Schlechty was second for Jay County with seven points, and Ryan Schlechty added six points to go with his game-high six rebounds.



Junior varsity

A slow start was too much to overcome for Jay County in a 59-39 loss.

The Patriots (13-5) fell behind 19-6 at the end of the first quarter and the deficit ballooned to 34-14 at half. No matter how hard they tried to claw back in the contest, the Spartans went point-for-point with the visitors over the final two quarters.

Gavin Lambert's 15-point effort was best for Jay County, which also got eight points from Ethan Dirksen and four each from Gavin Mulhlenkamp and Quinn Faulkner.

Freshman

Jay County trailed by two after seven minutes of play.

That's how many points it scored in each of the next two quarters in a 58-25 loss.

The Patriots (6-10) got outscored 17-2 in the second quarter and 18-2 in the third.

Gavin Myers led the team with nine points, while Crosby Heniser and Trenton Alexander finished with six points apiece.