Delta’s defense stifles Jay County

Delta takes the D in its name seriously.

It has no shortage of offense either.

Jay County turned the ball over 21 times against the Eagles’ in-your-face defense Saturday while giving up 57 percent shooting from the field in a 65-41 loss.

“They are so physical and get into you defensively,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg. “When you have the basketball, there is no room. You have no time to relax. You have to react. You have no time to think.

“We turned the ball over two or three times, boom, boom, boom, right away, which got us behind. We've got to take care of the basketball.”

Delta (14-4), which was 13th in this week’s Class 3A poll voting, scored its first basket off of a steal as it ran out to a 10-2 lead in the first 3:25 of the game. The Patriots never got closer than five points the rest of the way.

The Eagles forced six first-period turnovers on the way to 21 for the game while Jay County shot 3-of-11. Then their offense caught fire.

Delta made nine of the 12 shots it attempted in the second quarter to push to a 13-point halftime lead. It continued that success in the second half as it shot 22-of-35 over the final three periods, including a 9-0 run in the third quarter that put the game well out of reach.

“I thought once we played a little more inside-out — when we do that, when Brady (Hunt) gets a second touch and we play off his catches … we’ve got shooters,” said Delta coach Mark Detweiler, whose team was 9-of-20 (45 percent) from long distance. “Those are good numbers.”

Hunt’s 17 points led the way for the Eagles, who got points from nine different players and 3-pointers from five. Conner Bedwell added 15, and Sam Cox hit all of his three 3-point attempts as he reached double figures with 11.

The Patriots (6-13), who had won four of their last six, had a couple of bright spots in the loss.

Senior guard Brayden Sprunger, who hit seven 3-pointers Feb. 1 against Delta, went 4-of-6 from long distance against Delta. He added a pair of free throws for his team-high 14 points, with fellow senior Noah Arbuckle joining him in double figures with 11.

And speaking of free throws, Ethan Dirksen was at it again. He hit all four of his attempts — on consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter — to extend his run to 19 in a row.

Dirksen made all 13 of his foul shots, one short of the school record, in Friday’s win over Heritage and is shooting 78 percent from the line this season. He’s now more than halfway to Mark Hardwick’s school record of 33 consecutive free throws made.

“He’s the man I want at the foul line,” said Krieg. “Right now he is shooting free throws extremely well.”



Junior varsity

Jay County fell behind by 10 in the opening quarter and still faced a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter before their rally fell short in a 38-33 loss to the Eagles.

The Patriots trailed 12-2 in the opening period and were down by 12 at the half. They closed the gap before falling behind by 10 again in the third quarter, then rallied back to within three on Dusty Pearson’s 3-pointer with 30 seconds left. Delta missed a pair of free throws with 20.8 seconds left, but a JCHS turnover on the ensuing possession thwarted the comeback try.

Pearson scored all of his 13 points in the second half to lead the Patriots. Adam Muhlenkamp and Crosby Heniser each had five.

Logan Manor paced Delta with 14 points.