Opening victory

UNION CITY — Chalk it up to first-game jitters.

Or perhaps nerves of playing a meaningful game against someone else for a change.

Either way, it wasn’t the prettiest of starts for the Patriots. But it was a win nonetheless.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team began its 2020-21 campaign with a 62-45 victory against the Union City Indians on Friday.

“I thought the kids played hard, which I think we’re always going to do that,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, who picked up his 160th career victory leading the Patriots. “I’m proud of them for their effort.

“We have a lot of things to improve on, but there were a lot of good things I saw tonight.”

For instance, junior Madison Dirksen was just 3-of-16 (18.6%) from the field in the first half, but turned it around in the final 16 minutes to end the night with a career-high 24 points on 11-of-28 shooting, meaning she was 8-for-12 in the second half.

“I thought Madison stayed with her shot,” Comer said. “Second half she was able to knock some things down. Shooters keep shooting, I was proud she did that.”

While Dirksen struggled in the first half, classmate Izzy Rodgers was the opposite. The guard made a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers and matched her career-high of 13 points at intermission. Her 16 points for the game was second only to Dirksen.

It allowed the Patriots to take some of the pressure to score off of sophomore Renna Schwieterman, who entered the game as the team’s leading scorer from last season at 15.6 points per game.

“It’s just going to make us better,” Comer said. “If you can have three girls score in double figures — and we could possibly have more — we’re going to be hard to guard. With Madison and Izzy scoring it’s just going to make Renna that much better.

“But you have to realize … a lot of the points Izzy and Madison get are because of the penetration and kicks that Renna gets. She might not have had a great scoring night tonight but she was involved in a lot of our scoring.”

Schwieterman scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting and directly assisted on a pair of Dirksen baskets in the second half.

Jay County (1-0), which hosts Class 4A No. 2 North Central for a varsity-only contest at 6:30 p.m. tonight, struggled offensively to start the game. It turned the ball over on its first possession. After Schwieterman got the Patriots’ first basket of the season, they missed twice and turned the ball over again.

Once trailing 9-2, the Indians (0-1) went on a 10-2 run for their only lead of the game, 12-11. During the early comeback, Skylie Lutz hit the first of her four 3-pointers, Mariah Claywell put back her own miss and Lutz added another bucket.

“She’s a nice player,” Comer said of Lutz, who led the Indians with 18 points. “She’s a nice shooter (and) we knew that coming in.

“You leave her open, she’s going to knock it down. We missed our assignments a couple times and she made us pay.”

But on the Patriots’ next possession, senior Aubrie Schwieterman put back a Dirksen miss and the visitors never relinquished their lead.

Jay County had a 31-23 edge in rebounding, including 17 offensive boards.

“I thought we did a good job of that,” Comer said of defending the glass. “We always focus on being a good rebounding team, being a good offensive rebounding team. We send a lot of people to the boards. We gamble a little bit on that hoping it pays off and I thought it did tonight.”

At one point, the Patriots ran off nine consecutive points — a Dirksen putback, a Sophie Saxman running coast-to-coast for the first varsity basket of her career, a Rodgers triple and a fast break from Aubrie Schwieterman — to create a little separation, 27-14.

Making her varsity debut, Saxman tallied six points and five rebounds.

“She didn’t play like it was her first game at all,” Comer said. “To be honest she kind of played like a senior out there tonight. She’s a solid player and she’s only going to get better.

Union City, which trailed 31-17 at halftime, got within 10 twice in the third quarter but was never able to break into single digits.

Jay County doesn’t have to wait long for its first true test of the season as it welcomes the Panthers to town tonight. Comer is embracing the challenge.

“We have to be a lot better tomorrow night to even compete,” he said. “I think it’s a great game to have for this early in the season.

“Our weaknesses will really stand out tomorrow and we’ve got all season to work on them.”



Junior varsity

Jay County held Union City without a point in the first quarter in its 46-14 rout.

The Patriots (1-0) were on top 11-0 at the end of the opening period and went into the locker room leading 22-3. They continued to create distance in the third as it built a 32-11 advantage with one quarter to play.

Danielle May led Jay County with nine points, while Bralee VanSkyock, Bella Denton and Grace Shimp had six points apiece.