Title turned over

NEW CASTLE — There was little room for error against the highly touted Huskies.

Playing in its first sectional title game in six years, the Patriots were on the cusp of tying the score or taking the lead with less than 16 seconds to play.

But the ensuing possession ended up in their 16th and final turnover.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team had its bid for a sectional title come up short with a 46-42 loss to the Hamilton Heights Huskies in the championship game of the Class 3A Sectional 24 tournament on Saturday night at New Castle Fieldhouse.

“I’m really proud of the kids,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer. “We have outstanding kids and I thought it would come down to a possession or two. When two good teams go at it, the little things come into play and that’s what happened tonight.

“But you sure can’t fault our kids’ effort because they gave every single thing they had. I’ve said this before, but this is one of my all-time favorite teams. They’re just a special group. I hate to see it come to an end.”

The seventh-ranked Huskies (18-1), who won their fifth sectional title, advance to the regional semifinal against Benton Central at noon Feb. 13 at Bellmont.

“Jay County is a really good … great basketball team,” Hamilton Heights coach Keegan Cherry said. “Coach Comer is one of the all-time greats. He’s one of the good guys. I told him before the game, win or lose, I feel good about tonight because I feel like one of the good guys is going to win this one so I feel bad for him and his locker room.

“But man, our girls are fighters. They’re fighters. (Jay County) killed us on the backboard. We never quit. That ball game was in the balance the whole way.”

The Patriots (19-4), who were 11th in the final Class 3A poll voting and had to fight tooth-and-nail in the semifinal Friday night against Yorktown while the Huskies cruised past host New Castle, trailed 43-39 with 45 seconds remaining after a Sydney Runyan bucket.

The Huskies had a chance to build on that lead but missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Patriots pulled within a point as Renna Schwieterman split a pair of free throws and Madison Dirksen put back her own missed 3-pointer to make it 43-42.

Camryn Runner, who finished with a game-high 25 points, made the front end of two bonus free throws with 16.8 seconds to go. Just as Jay County brought the rebound across mid-court following Runner’s miss on the second, the Huskies’ defense created yet another turnover.

Forced to foul, the Patriots sent HHHS senior Jillian Osswald to the line and she made both free throws with 5.9 seconds to go to seal the win.

“Camryn Runner is just an absolute beast,” Cherry said. The freshman was 9-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-5 from the 3-point line, and made three of her four free-throw attempts.

“Jillian Osswald being a senior leader, she’s been in the trenches for the last three years I think her experience really paid off down the stretch here late.”

Cherry said he knew the sectional title would come down to which team would make the last mistake, or at least the fewest number of them.

“We pressed from the tip essentially and we knew that’s what we had to do to win,” he said. “Turn them over and win in transition by trying to get some easy run-outs, and we were able to do that late.”

Jay County never led by more than two points, while Hamilton Heights’ biggest lead turned out to be the final margin, a difference it reached four times.

“I wouldn’t say tonight was our best performance, but you definitely have to give them credit,” said Comer, whose team had a 34-21 edge on the glass with 13 offensive rebounds. “They played really good defense. They’re a really good basketball team.

“They’ve only lost one game, so we got beat by a really good basketball team tonight.”

Madison Dirksen and Schwieterman each scored 13 points to lead the Patriots, and Dirksen also had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Saturday night was the final game in a Patriot uniform for two seniors, Aubrie Schwieterman and Grace Saxman. They leave the program having helped the team to a 66-30 record including two Allen County Athletic Conference tournament championships.

And each of them got to play their final season with younger siblings.

“They’re outstanding,” Comer said. “Every year I want to try to win for the seniors. We have two outstanding seniors. In the locker room after they game they spoke up. They are just class all the time.

“They are great examples for the rest of our team and the rest of our kids. We’re going to miss them tremendously. It’s just a sad night because it’s their last game.”