July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Good Knight (01/19/07)

JCHS girls basketball
Good Knight (01/19/07)
Good Knight (01/19/07)

By By RAY COONEY-

OSSIAN - There was no doubt Jay County had a talented girls basketball team.

After all, the Patriots opened 8-1, their only loss coming by a single point. But any team might question itself during a stretch of four losses in five games, including three winnable games in a row against quality teams.

But Jay County had the answers Thursday night.

Going on the road against a Norwell Knights' squad which was ranked in the top 10 in Class 3A earlier this season, the Patriots never trailed and held off a late run for a 47-41 victory.

"You've got to experience it before you can do it," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team had suffered difficult losses to Class 3A No. 3 New Castle (16-2), Huntington North (12-4) and Connersville (10-8) before breaking their skid Tuesday against South Adams (2-12). "We've been on the short end the last three times. You can say we were due or whatever, but I think we learned from things in the past, we got better at the things we needed to get better at and we finished this one."

The Patriots (11-5) played easily their best game since topping Elwood nearly a month ago as they led from the get-go and were up by as many as 13 points in the third quarter before Norwell pushed back. The Knights closed all the way to 43-41 when Taylor Plummer drove the left baseline for a lay-up with 1:36 remaining, but they did not score again.

Norwell (10-6) had a chance to tie the game after Abby Loy missed the front end of a one-and-one try with 29 seconds to go, but Kylie Dial's shot on the other end was no good. Loy got a second chance as she was fouled after grabbing her game-high fifth rebound. The junior, who also made two free throws in the final 10 seconds to key a 57-56 win over Anderson Highland in December, hit both foul shots with 9.1 seconds left to put the game out of reach.

Sara Garringer, who finished with a game-high 12 points off the bench, added two more free throws with three seconds to go for the final margin.

"We had to be perfect at the end," said Norwell coach Eric Thornton. "That goes back to the beginning and then the runs that they made to allow them to get out to double digits. They're just too good for us to be able to do that. ... At the end of the game we had to be pretty much flawless, and I don't think any team is going to be perfect at the end.

"It wasn't there. In the first quarter we got down 15-6. We can't start out like that against Jay County. ... Our starters just need to get us off to a better start."

Three-pointers by Loy and Whitney Homan, assisted by Homan and Kaelee Keller respectively, kicked off Jay County's fast start.

The visiting team led 6-0 and was up by nine after Cassandra Huelskamp closed the opening quarter with a 3-pointer from a series of passes by Keller and Dana Horn.

The advantage fluctuated between four and 10 points for the next 11 minutes. Then the Patriots turned in their biggest run of the game.

Leading 32-26, Sara Garringer buried a 3-pointer from a Horn assist. Jay County turned the ball over on its next possession leading to a Norwell fast break, but Horn hustled down the floor and drew a charging foul.

Not only did the charge give the Patriots possession again, it also sent Thornton into a frenzy on the sidelines and he drew a technical foul. Garringer hit one of the two free throws, then buried her third 3-pointer of the game off another Horn assist on the ensuing possession.

The 7-0 run in a span of just 1:14 lifted Jay County to a 39-26 advantage.

The Patriot passing was excellent for a second straight game as they had 13 assists on 15 made field goals. Five different players had at least two assists - Horn and Keller with three apiece, and Homan, Loy and Garringer each with two.

"We played really well as a team," said Comer, whose team shot better than 40 percent for the second straight game after hitting for less than 25 percent in the previous two. "We're getting more continuity. We're doing our rotation different and we're giving them more time on the floor together.

"I thought our movement was very good tonight, our spacing was good, our ball reversal was pretty good. We took shots when we had them ... We've been working on that."

Following Garringer were Loy with eight points and Lindsey Wellman with seven.

Jay County also had a good night on the defensive end, limiting the Knights to 34 percent from the field and just three field goals in the first half. In addition to Horn's charge in the second half, Homan drew a key charge in the first.

"We played very good team defense tonight," said Comer, who also got three blocks from Wellman. "We had some big stops when we needed them. I thought we mixed it up enough that it confused them some.

"The girls are just starting to play with a lot more confidence."

Haley Chaney's 12 points and five rebounds led Norwell, which finished with just a pair of assists.

Junior varsity

Jay County pushed the Knights all the way to the finish, but couldn't get over the hump in a 28-27 defeat.

Alyssa Shutt scored a game-high 15 points to lead Norwell. Jordan Wilson followed with nine points.

Pazia Speed's seven points were a team-high for the Patriots. Sharon Dirksen had six points, and Amber Edmundson added four.

Freshman

The Patriots led for most of the second and third quarters, but allowed a Norwell rally in the fourth in a 23-20 loss.

Jay County was up 14-9 at the half and was still ahead by four entering the fourth quarter despite getting just a single point in the third. The Knights proceeded to score more points in the fourth quarter (12) than the previous three combined (11) for the comeback victory.

Kaylee Davis paced the Patriots with six points and three steals in the defeat. Loryn Horn and Jamie Klinger each added five points, and Brittany Muhlenkamp had 10 rebounds.

Brittany Schumm scored six points to lead Norwell, and Kyra Raines finished with five.[[In-content Ad]]
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