Delta dominates Patriots (02/11/05)

MUNCIE — The Jay County Patriots have dominated the other teams in their sectional since 2002-03. All except the Delta Eagles, that is.

The two-time defending sectional champions lost to Delta for the third straight time Thursday, 62-48, to halt a five-game winning streak.

Jay County has gone 15-0 since the start of the 2002-03 season against other sectional opponents.

Both teams finished with eight two-point field goals and eight 3-pointers, but the Eagles (11-5) played much stronger inside. They earned 27 trips to the free-throw line, compared to just 12 for the Patriots, and converted 22 of them.

“We really tried to attack them inside,” said Delta coach Paul Keller, whose team scored all of its second-quarter points from the foul line. “In the first quarter we got inside quite a bit and created some fouls and got to the free-throw line. In the second quarter we got away from that too much.”

But after holding just a 26-22 lead at the half despite thoroughly outplaying Jay County (10-6), the Eagles got back to their game plan in the third quarter.

Delta pushed its lead back out to 10 points, watched it fall briefly to eight on a hoop by Trent Bailey and then let Michael Capstick put the game away.

Spotting up behind the arc on the left side, Capstick drained three consecutive 3-pointers. The junior single-handedly accounted for a 9-0 Eagle run for a 46-29 lead as the Patriots went without a point for the final 4:25 of the period.

“Those were big,” said Keller, whose team’s lead jumped to as many as 20 points before Jay County closed the gap in the final minute. “When Michael gets his feet set and we swing the ball he’s as good a 3-point shooter as anyone on our team”

Capstick paced Delta with 16 points, hitting four of his five 3-point tries.

Ryan Pokorny dominated the Patriots inside, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He shot 4-of-5 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.

Bryce Bow added 11 points, Andy Kennedy had nine and Kevin Lynch scored eight. Bow and Lynch each dished out four assists.

Jay County coach Craig Teagle said his players got beaten in every way possible: “We got out-hustled. We got out-muscled. They were more intense. They were mentally tougher than we were. Their post guys whipped our post guys all night. ...

“They outsmarted us. They out-coached us. There’s not one phase that I’m happy with.”

The only thing from the game worth remembering for Patriot fans was Trent Bailey’s effort as he broke the school’s career 3-point record.

Bailey, who tied Matt Wendel’s mark of 129 last week against Fort Recovery, took sole possession of the record as he scored Jay County’s first points on a 3-pointer 1:42 into the game. He added four more 3-pointers before the break as he scored all of the squad’s 12 first-quarter points and 15 of its 22 in the first half. He finished 6-of-10 from long distance to push his career total to 135 and was the lone Patriot in double figures as he scored 22 points.

Mark Kelly was next for Jay County with seven points and six rebounds. Tyler Rigby added five points and four assists.

Junior varsity

The Jay County JV squad got back into the game in the third quarter, but couldn’t keep up in the fourth in a 47-40 loss to Delta.

The Patriots trailed by six at the half, but went on a 10-0 run to take a brief lead in the third quarter. However, they quickly fell behind again and never got closer than five points in the final two minutes of the defeat.

Rhett Retter scored nearly half of the Jay County points as he finished with 19. Randy Evans added eight points, and Clint Muhlenkamp scored seven.

Tyler Ridge scored 20 points for Delta, and Brady Ridge had 12 points.[[In-content Ad]]