Jay girls top Stars

BERNE — The Patriots and Starfires shot 50 percent or better in the first half Saturday.
Things fell apart for the home team in the third quarter.
Jay County’s girls basketball team held host South Adams scoreless for more than eight minutes in a 50-34 road victory.
“I thought we had some looks, we just couldn’t get anything to drop,” said SAHS coach Brett Freeman, whose team fell to 6-6 on the season and 1-3 in the Allen County Athletic Conference. “That’s a tough Jay County team. They were going to make things difficult. We knew coming in that we would have to have a good performance on both ends of the floor.”
Jay County (9-1, 4-0 ACAC) pushed its 10-point halftime lead to 20 on six points by Bre McIntire and four by Abby Wendel. McIntire went on a personal 6-0 run on her only 3-pointer for the game and an old-fashioned three-point play. After South Adams missed at the other end of the court, Ava Kunkler found Wendel for the first of her two buckets in the quarter.
South Adams freshman Lexi Dellinger capitalized on a rare Patriot turnover — they had a season-low six giveaways in the game — for the first Starfire points of the second half in the final minute of the third quarter. By then, 8 minutes, 8 seconds, had passed since the last SAHS bucket.
South Adams then scored the first five points of the final quarter on a put-back by Cindy In’t Groen and an old-fashioned three-point play by Kenzie Jennings.
“I thought our girls responded pretty well there to start the fourth,” Freeman said, adding at times he felt the Patriots were going to blow the game open.
Hanna Ault, a Jay County freshman who was making her first career start, stopped the 7-0 run with a jumper from the right baseline. It was the second time of the game she stopped a seven-point Starfire run. The first time she hit the first of her three 3-pointers with 3:02 remaining in the second quarter.
“We were at a point when we were struggling and Hanna hits a big three,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, adding that Ault started in place of Taylor Homan who was at a family wedding. “All the sudden it gets us going.
“Hanna can shoot the ball and she can defend the ball. That’s what I like about (her); I can put her in all five positions. She’s a hard person to guard.”
Ault wasn’t the only Patriot to give the Starfires fits Saturday afternoon.
Wendel, a JCHS junior, was 7-of-11 from the field — including 3-of-5 from long distance — for a game-high 19 points to match the career-high she set Dec. 12 against Adams Central. She tallied seven of her 10 first -half points in the opening quarter and also finished with five rebounds.
Kunkler had a team-high six boards and shared the team lead with four assists.
McIntire added nine points, including making both of her free-throw attempts. The Patriot senior is now 27-of-32 (84.3 percent) from the charity stripe.
South Adams, which has relied heavily on Sydney Willis on the perimeter and In’t Groen down low, wasn’t able to work through the duo in the second half.
Willis, a junior who led all players with 11 points at halftime, was held to just two in the final 16 minutes. In’t Groen, a senior, scored four points after the break to finish with 11.
Freeman said the combo of Willis and In’t Groen gives his team a good inside-outside look, but he would like to see more consistency out of the rest of the team.
“We can’t rely on those two to carry the whole load,” he said.
Jay County, which is off to its best start since the 2008-09 squad finished the regular season undefeated, continues to control its destiny during its first year in the ACAC. After knocking off favorites Leo and Woodlan, the Patriots are in the driver’s seat to a regular-season conference title.
“It is a huge start for us,” said Krieg. “Our goal going into Christmastime was to be 4-0 in the conference and 9-1.
“That’s where we’re at, so we’re happy with that.”

Junior varsity
Much like their varsity counterparts, South Adams struggled with shooting in a 25-12 loss to the Patriots.
The Patriots (9-1) held the Starfires to just three points in the first quarter and two in the second in building a 16-5 lead heading into intermission.
Jay County extended its advantage to 25-12 after three quarters en route to the win.
Britlyn Dues, a JCHS sophomore, led all players with 10 points, including six in the third quarter. Audrey Shreve, Betsy Muhlenkamp and Kyndal Miller all added three.
Addie Wanner had five points for South Adams, and Lexi Dellinger chipped in with three points.