Jay earns ACAC win

WOODBURN — The Patriots had a hard time scoring in the opening quarter Friday night.
Mental mistakes were an issue in the second half.
But the Patriots overcame those issues for a double-digit win Friday, their first in the Allen County Athletic Conference.
The Jay County High School boys basketball team recovered from a lackluster shooting performance in the first eight minutes and overcame 14 second-half turnovers in a 50-32 road victory against Woodlan.
 “It wasn’t pretty in the second half, but it’s nice to go on the road and get a conference win,” said JCHS coach Craig Teagle, whose team moves to 3-0 for the third time in four seasons.
Jay County (3-0, 1-0 ACAC), which had been an independent since the Olympic Athletic Conference dissolved in 2010, had a 9-8 lead after the first quarter, during which it shot 3-of-9 from the field. Justin Dirksen and Kyler Carvel scored back-to-back buckets on assists from Zach Pryor to open the second quarter as the Patriots built a 25-15 lead heading into intermission.
Despite outscoring Woodlan (0-4, 0-1 ACAC) in the second half, oftentimes Jay County’s offense had a number of mistakes that Teagle said were mental.
“It’s all fundamentals and that bothers us a little bit because we work so hard on it,” Teagle said. “Hopefully it’s something we can learn from.”
The Patriots turned the ball over on three straight possessions early on in the third quarter — they had seven total in the frame — but at the other end the Warriors couldn’t convert on their opportunities.
“We missed a lot of 2-footers,” said Woodlan coach Dave Randall, whose team had only three two-point field goals and shot less than 30 percent (11-of-38) from the field. “I felt like we left a lot of points on the rim.
“The goal of any offense is to get 2-point field goals and we couldn’t finish.”

Trailing 37-21 with less than two minutes in the third quarter, Woodlan’s Loren Hahn hit the second of his three 3-pointers. Austin Fancher followed by splitting a pair of free throws to get the Warriors within 12.
Evan Gustin drilled a three from the top of the arc on an assist by Jeffrey Jones to open the fourth. Following yet another Jay County turnover, Triston Moses nailed a jumper for five quick Woodlan points as it cut the lead to 37-30 and force Teagle to call a timeout.
One more turnover by the Patriots gave the Warriors a chance at the other end, but much like the first three quarters, it came up empty.
Dirksen, who had a game and career-high 16 points, hit the front end of a pair of freebies to spark a run of 13 straight points for Jay County.
“He is all over the place,” Teagle said of Dirksen, who bounced back from missing his first two shots to make seven of his final nine attempts. “He is like a pinball in a pinball machine. He just keeps going hard and he is so mentally tough. He’s going to play hard all the time.”
The senior also grabbed six rebounds, five of which were on the defensive side of the court. His younger brother Adam joined him in double figures with 13 points, while leading all players with seven rebounds and five blocks.

Junior varsity
Much like their varsity counterparts, the Patriots started slow. But their rally fell short in a 47-38 loss to the Warriors.
Woodlan had a 13-4 lead after eight minutes, but saw that lead shrink to just five points entering halftime. The Warriors pushed it to six after three quarters before pulling away in the final eight minutes.
Spencer Calvert and Jason Schlosser each had seven points for the Patriots (1-2, 0-1 ACAC), with Bryan Stancliffe and Justin Crouch adding six apiece.

Freshman
Jay County moved to 2-0 on the season with a 36-29 victory over the Warriors in the first game of a tripleheader.
After just eight points in the opening quarter — Woodlan led 5-3 — Jay County took an 8-7 advantage into intermission before pulling away in the third quarter by outscoring Woodlan 14-2. The Warriors scored 20 points in the fourth, but JCHS was able to hold on.
Holton Hill led all scorers with 18 points, including going 8-for-11 from the free-throw line.
Jordan Stultz tallied six points, and Collin Haines had five.