30 in the first

The Patriots had a rocky start as they dropped two of their first three games of the season.

But they are starting to find their groove after picking up their sixth straight heading into the Christmas break.

The Jay County High School girls basketball team played strong in the first and third quarters to secure a 75-44 victory over the South Adams Starfires on Saturday to extend its winning streak to six and remain undefeated at home and in the Allen County Athletic Conference.

“The first quarter I thought was good,” said JCHS coach Sherri McIntire. “I felt like the second quarter we had too many turnovers.

“I’m pleased we’re going into break 7-3, we’ve gone on a win streak. Obviously I’m happy we got an ACAC win, but I felt like we came and went too much tonight. We didn’t play consistently at our level.”

While McIntire felt like her team took the foot off the gas pedal at certain points in the game, she was thrilled with the first eight minutes as Jay County (7-3) developed a 30-11 lead.

The Patriots made 13 shots in the period, nine of which came as the result of an assist. Elizabeth Brunswick and Raylah Newton each dished out three assists in the period while Natalie May had one of her three in the first and Karsyn Schwieterman gave out two of her game-high five assists.

“The girls are obviously looking for their shots, but they’re also finding each other and sharing the basketball,” McIntire said. “That’s so important because down the road it can’t just be the Hallie Schwieterman show or the Karsyn Schweiterman show, but those two will still score for us.”

By sharing the ball so well, Jay County ended up having five players score nine or more points. Hallie and Karsyn Schwieterman both predictably scored well with the former putting up 19 to lead JCHS and the latter adding in 12 points.

    Hallie Schwieterman blasts through a group of Starfires to put up a layup during Saturday’s 75-44 victory. Schwieterman took advantage of South Adams’ press on multiple occasions to finish with 19 points. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
  

Newton matched her career high with 13 points, while Charlee Peters set a new career mark with 16.

“I feel pretty good,” said Peters, three hoops in the first and third quarters. “Karsyn (Schwieterman) has been throwing me a lot of good passes recently and I was able to catch them tonight and put it right back up.”

Brunswick was the Patriot with nine points. Natalie May and Araitz Lekue Magro both found the basket as well.

While JCHS had four players in double figures and three more with field goals, only two of the Starfires (5-8, 1-3 ACAC) hit shots from the field. Ana Lehman finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-22 (40.9%) shooting and Laney Trausch had a pair of buckets in each half for 16 points.

“Lehman’s a good athlete,” McIntire said. “We knew that coming in and knew she was somebody we needed to be focused on because she can drive and shoot from the outside.

“(Trausch) is a very athletic kid and we gave her too many second opportunities. …

“But overall, we knew the other kids really were not scoring threats and we needed to focus on those two.”

Along with generally sharing the ball, Jay County took advantage of South Adams in transition. The Patriots scored 64% (48 of the 75) points when changing sides of the court.

Of those 48 transition points, 19 (39.6%) came off of turnovers, 11 (22.9%) were the result of beating the press and 16 (33.3%) were scored by the Patriots ripping down a rebound and running or pushing after a quick inbounds pass.

“We were just making space and getting open,” said Karsyn Schwieterman about breaking the press. “We have a couple of plays and Hallie is really good at getting open. … Once we get it in, we can just (beat them), especially when they are in man because it’s just one-on-one.”