November 21, 2020 at 6:40 a.m.
Dirksen’s dagger lifts Jay past Bellmont
Junior hits go-ahead triple in 34-29 win
Dirksen’s dagger lifts Jay past Bellmont
The Patriots had missed their first 11 shots from the perimeter.
Bellmont was just 1-of-13 from distance, too.
Madison Dirksen made sure her team wouldn’t go 0-fer from the arc.
Following a timeout, Dirksen buried a 3-pointer from the left wing on an assist from Renna Schwieterman to break a tie. It proved to be the difference as the Jay County High School girls basketball team held off Bellmont on Friday, 34-29.
“Coming out of the timeout, we had that set,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team moves to 2-1 on the year and travels to Converse tonight to meet the Oak Hill Golden Eagles (1-1).
“Yes, Madison had to hit that shot, but Gabi (Bilbrey) had to set a screen and Renna had to make a good pass,” Comer continued. “It just worked out where all three of them did what they had to do for that to happen.
“If we can give (Madison) a shot that’s set then I like our chances of her making it.”
Dirksen’s triple gave her a dozen points for the night — she led all players with 11 rebounds — and put the Patriots on top, 32-29, with 2:35 to play.
Bellmont (3-1), which finished No. 16 in the most recent Class 3A coaches’ poll, had a chance to pull within one point with less than two minutes to play but Faith Morris missed a pair of free throws.
After the Patriots missed the front end of a one-and-one twice on the same possession — Dirksen grabbed the rebound after the first miss and Izzy Rodgers did so after the second — Rodgers got sent to the line with 24.4 seconds remaining to make it a two-possession lead.
“Knowing that points are hard to come by, making up three is a task,” Bellmont coach Andy Heim said. “They pressed a little bit there and hit some big shots toward the end. That’s how it ended.”
Solid defense by each team made baskets a premium early on as Bellmont missed its first five shots. Jay County, which scored on the first possession of the game but didn’t make a shot until there was 2:52 remaining in the period, got a fast-break basket from Dirksen which forced Heim into calling a timeout.
Trailing 9-5 at the end of the first quarter, Bellmont made up the difference over the span of 3:30 as a Morgan Shifferly jumper from the left baseline tied the game at nine each.
Jay County, which had sisters Aubrie and Renna Schwieterman on the bench for most of the first half in foul trouble, weathered that storm by going ahead 12-9 only to trail at halftime 15-14.
“I thought they did a good job,” Comer said of his team fighting through the adversity of having the team’s leading scorer from last year, Renna, and perhaps the team’s best defender, Aubrie, on the bench. Another pair of sisters, Grace and Sophie Saxman, were called into action in the absence of the Schwietermans.
“We stayed with them until half which is what we needed to do with the bench is get us to halftime and try to win the second half,” Comer continued. “I thought the girls coming off the bench did what they were supposed to do.”
In the third quarter, Bellmont tied the game at 18 on a Shifferly basket and got its largest lead of the night, 21-18, thanks to a Kenzie Fuelling 3-pointer, at that time the only one for either team.
Shifferly matched Dirksen’s effort with a dozen points, and Fuelling ended with nine.
Bellmont later trailed 29-25, but a Shifferly basket and two freebies from Sydney Keane tied the score for the sixth and final time.
Two aggressive defenses forced a combined 38 turnovers, including 11 traveling violations.
“It turned into two defensive teams that are pretty good battling,” Heim said.
Junior varsity
Bellmont blanked Jay County in the second quarter to hand the hosts their first loss of the season, 30-18.
Jay County (1-1) fell behind 9-4 at the end of the first quarter and saw the deficit balloon to 15-4 at halftime. The Patriots made up a couple points, outscoring Bellmont 8-6 in the third, but the visitors kept their distance to get the win.
Bralee VanSkyock led the offensive effort for Jay County by scoring eight points. Danielle May contributed three points as Angel Clairday, Bella Denton and Breanna Dirksen had two points each.
Haley Cole led Bellmont with eight points.
Bellmont was just 1-of-13 from distance, too.
Madison Dirksen made sure her team wouldn’t go 0-fer from the arc.
Following a timeout, Dirksen buried a 3-pointer from the left wing on an assist from Renna Schwieterman to break a tie. It proved to be the difference as the Jay County High School girls basketball team held off Bellmont on Friday, 34-29.
“Coming out of the timeout, we had that set,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team moves to 2-1 on the year and travels to Converse tonight to meet the Oak Hill Golden Eagles (1-1).
“Yes, Madison had to hit that shot, but Gabi (Bilbrey) had to set a screen and Renna had to make a good pass,” Comer continued. “It just worked out where all three of them did what they had to do for that to happen.
“If we can give (Madison) a shot that’s set then I like our chances of her making it.”
Dirksen’s triple gave her a dozen points for the night — she led all players with 11 rebounds — and put the Patriots on top, 32-29, with 2:35 to play.
Bellmont (3-1), which finished No. 16 in the most recent Class 3A coaches’ poll, had a chance to pull within one point with less than two minutes to play but Faith Morris missed a pair of free throws.
After the Patriots missed the front end of a one-and-one twice on the same possession — Dirksen grabbed the rebound after the first miss and Izzy Rodgers did so after the second — Rodgers got sent to the line with 24.4 seconds remaining to make it a two-possession lead.
“Knowing that points are hard to come by, making up three is a task,” Bellmont coach Andy Heim said. “They pressed a little bit there and hit some big shots toward the end. That’s how it ended.”
Solid defense by each team made baskets a premium early on as Bellmont missed its first five shots. Jay County, which scored on the first possession of the game but didn’t make a shot until there was 2:52 remaining in the period, got a fast-break basket from Dirksen which forced Heim into calling a timeout.
Trailing 9-5 at the end of the first quarter, Bellmont made up the difference over the span of 3:30 as a Morgan Shifferly jumper from the left baseline tied the game at nine each.
Jay County, which had sisters Aubrie and Renna Schwieterman on the bench for most of the first half in foul trouble, weathered that storm by going ahead 12-9 only to trail at halftime 15-14.
“I thought they did a good job,” Comer said of his team fighting through the adversity of having the team’s leading scorer from last year, Renna, and perhaps the team’s best defender, Aubrie, on the bench. Another pair of sisters, Grace and Sophie Saxman, were called into action in the absence of the Schwietermans.
“We stayed with them until half which is what we needed to do with the bench is get us to halftime and try to win the second half,” Comer continued. “I thought the girls coming off the bench did what they were supposed to do.”
In the third quarter, Bellmont tied the game at 18 on a Shifferly basket and got its largest lead of the night, 21-18, thanks to a Kenzie Fuelling 3-pointer, at that time the only one for either team.
Shifferly matched Dirksen’s effort with a dozen points, and Fuelling ended with nine.
Bellmont later trailed 29-25, but a Shifferly basket and two freebies from Sydney Keane tied the score for the sixth and final time.
Two aggressive defenses forced a combined 38 turnovers, including 11 traveling violations.
“It turned into two defensive teams that are pretty good battling,” Heim said.
Junior varsity
Bellmont blanked Jay County in the second quarter to hand the hosts their first loss of the season, 30-18.
Jay County (1-1) fell behind 9-4 at the end of the first quarter and saw the deficit balloon to 15-4 at halftime. The Patriots made up a couple points, outscoring Bellmont 8-6 in the third, but the visitors kept their distance to get the win.
Bralee VanSkyock led the offensive effort for Jay County by scoring eight points. Danielle May contributed three points as Angel Clairday, Bella Denton and Breanna Dirksen had two points each.
Haley Cole led Bellmont with eight points.
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