Archers escape Jay (11/07/07)

Coming up short on election night isn't very satisfying for politicians. It was a disappointment for the Patriots as well.

Hosting the eighth-ranked team in Class 4A in its season opener Tuesday, the Jay County High School girls basketball team let a lead slip away and missed a chance for a late rally. Brittany Johnson's offensive rebound and put-back with less than 30 seconds to go helped the Fort Wayne South Side Archers hold on for a 62-58 win over the Patriots.

"We let it get away," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team led its new sectional rival for most of the first half before trailing throughout the fourth. "These girls are disappointed. We were coming in here tonight expecting to win. They're a good basketball team, but we let this get away."

After leading from the 2:05 mark of the first quarter through the first two minutes of the second half, the Patriots fell behind and trailed throughout the fourth when it got a big opportunity with 29 seconds left.

With No. 8 South Side (1-0) leading by three points, Sydney Weinert stepped to the free-throw line and missed both of her attempts. However, Johnson slid inside of Cassandra Huelskamp on the left side of the lane, grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back for a 61-56 advantage.

Jay County (0-1) cut the lead to three again on a driving lay-up from Kaelee Keller, but ran out of time.

"She's, for a freshman, a pretty heady player," said Archer coach Andy Rang of Johnson, who had a team-high nine rebounds in leading a 42-34 advantage on the glass. "She does a good job. She's played enough basketball, she knows, she kind of snuck in there and got us a big one when we needed it."

South Side took the lead in the second half as it turned to its inside game after missing its first seven 3-pointers and finishing just 2-of-17 from long distance in the opening half. The Archers took their first lead since the opening quarter on a Jarvisha Jackson lay-up and free throw for a 3-point play 2:32 into the second half.

Huelskamp's third 3-pointer of the game followed by a Keller hoop pushed JCHS back ahead at 37-36, but Johnson immediately followed with a 3-pointer off a Normalyn Smith assist to give South Side the lead for good.

The lead pushed to as many as seven points at 47-40 early in the fourth quarter before Jay County used a 7-2 run to pull within one.

However, Kate Ball hit a key 3-pointer after missing her first six attempts from long distance, and Johnson's late put-back sealed the game.

"We didn't shoot the ball very well that first half," said Rang. "I told them at halftime we needed to attack the basket a little bit more instead of being just a jump-shooting team. I thought we did a little better job at that."

After shooting just 21 percent overall in the first half, South Side went 16-of-32 (50 percent) in the second half, including 61 percent from 2-point range.

"I thought Shavonda (Price) did a very good job of that in the second half," added Rang of the senior forward, who scored 13 of her team-high 18 points after the break. "We relied too heavily on (3-pointers) in the first. Hopefully we shoot it better, but we don't want to shoot that many."

Johnson followed Price with 10 points and nine rebounds, and Weinert totaled 10 points and seven boards. Smith added seven rebounds and four assists.

Both teams struggled early, but Jay County took control with 10 points in the first four minutes of the second quarter for a 20-14 lead. The Patriots were still up six points with 1:28 left before halftime, but gave up a 5-0 run to Smith to end the half.

"I think it's very important to have the momentum going into each quarter," said Comer, whose team also missed five free throws in the final 2:45 of the first half. "We ended up going in at halftime ahead by one. That was huge.

"We talked about not having stretches like that. It's easy to understand and talk about it, but when you're playing a quick team like Fort Wayne South sometimes its hard."

Lindsey Wellman led the Patriots with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and added five rebounds, but was limited because of foul issues. She picked up her fourth foul with more than four minutes left in the third quarter and sat out nearly seven minutes before returning to score nine points in the final 5:07 of the game.

Huelskamp followed with 14 points, hitting a trio of 3-pointers. She and Wellman combined to shoot 62 percent from the field, but the rest of the Patriots were just 7-of-37 (19 percent).

Pazia Speed pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds, Kaelee Keller had eight points and game-best six assists and Dana Horn added four assists.

"I thought our effort was really good," said Comer. "Mentally, we've got to get to the point where we know we can finish them."

Junior varsity

Jay County dominated the second quarter and held off a late Archer run for a 34-27 victory.

Brittany Muhlenkamp scored six of her game-high eight points for the Patriots in the first half. Her effort helped the home team build a 21-9 lead at the break, and Southside pulled within six points late before its comeback effort fizzled.

Erin Hunt hit a pair of second-quarter 3-pointers for six points, and Cara Garringer also scored six points.

Misha'le Nagel, Shaquala Ackerson and Lindsay Didier each scored five points for the Archers.

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