Holdin' on (12/11/06)

For much of the final four minutes Saturday the Patriots performed a disappearing act. In the last 33 seconds, they simply performed.

Whitney Homan and Nicole Pfeifer grabbed key rebounds and Abby Loy capped a career scoring high with a pair of clutch free throws as the Jay County girls basketball team survived for a 57-56 victory over the Anderson Highland Scots.

"I think it's huge for us," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer of the win over a team his Patriots lost to by 11 a year ago. "The coaching staff knows that we have a lot of talent in that locker room, and (the players) hear it night in and night out. But I don't know that they really believe how good they can be. This is a step in that direction."

Jay County (7-1, 2-0 Olympic Athletic Conference) was headed in the wrong direction late in the game after a 7-0 run gave it a 50-37 lead with just 3:34 to play. Raven Ivey brought the Scots back, scoring 11 points, including nine straight, in a 16-2 run. Erin Loper capped the rally with a put-back basket with one minute left to give Highland a 53-52 advantage, its first lead since the opening minute of the game.

But Homan, Pfeifer and Loy wouldn't let the win fall through the Patriots' fingers.

After a miss by Lindsey Wellman, the 5-foot-7-inch Homan went up between three much taller Scots and brought down her sixth rebound of the game. She was fouled, made the first free-throw and missed the second. Pfeifer helped her fellow senior, grabbing another offensive rebound for Jay County and putting it back up for a 55-53 lead.

"Coach stressed the whole game that the big key was boxing out and rebounding and that was going to make the difference," said Homan, who hit four 3-pointers and was one of three Patriots in double figures with 13 points. "I tried to keep that in my mind. As a team I think we did really well ... to try to get as many rebounds as we could and that one just came my way."

Homan's rebounding total was second on the team behind the 5-foot-6 Loy's seven. Theresa Reinhart added five boards.

Comer said he preached rebounding all week, and his players came through.

Despite going up against a Scot starting lineup with four players 5-foot-11 or taller - the tallest player on the JCHS roster is 5-foot-10 - Jay County earned a rebounding deadlock at 29.

"All we had to do was get low, box out and just get the ball," added Pfeifer. "We were hoping for a bunch of over-the-back calls, but they didn't give us any. All you can do is box out."

Kyla Lacey was called for a charge on the ensuing Highland possession, and the Scots (6-3, 1-1 OAC) were forced to foul to put Loy at the line. The junior calmly hit both of her free throws to give Jay County a much-needed four-point lead with 7.1 seconds left, and Kasey Herrington buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin.

"I was just thinking about stepping up and hitting them," said Loy, who finished 4-for-4 from the line and had 14 points to lead the Patriots. "I was a little nervous there, but it's just like any other game."

Wellman added 12 points for the Patriots, and Dana Horn racked up six assists.

The Patriots took control of the game in the first half despite Lindsey Wellman picked up her second foul with just over four minutes gone in the game. With a small lineup in the game they went to their "hammer" defense, a half-court trap which often had two or three players at a time flying at the ball.

The result was 12 Highland turnovers before the break compared to just six for the Patriots. They converted those turnovers into a 10-2 run in the second quarter, and kept the lead at six points or more until Ivey rallied the Scots late in the fourth quarter.

"We caused ourselves more havoc than anything," said Highland coach Stacey Brewer. "It's a simple thing of following the game plan or not following the game plan. And if you execute what we've done all week in practice ... you can be right on target. However, if you don't do that you can cause yourself a lot of headaches.

"But give Jay County credit. They fight and they fight and they never give up. They crashed the boards like no other team we've played."

Ivey scored 13 of her game-high 21 points for the Scots in the fourth quarter. She also had a game-high seven rebounds to go along with two assists and one block.

Herrington added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Junior varsity

Jay County turned a relatively close game into a blowout, dominating the fourth quarter in a 40-19 victory over the Scots.

The Patriots, who are a perfect 8-0, had just a five-point lead heading into the final period. But, they outscored Highland 18-2 in the final six minutes for a 21-point win.

Brittany Mann led all scorers for Jay County with 10 points. Pazia Speed added eight points, and Sarah Westgerdes and Gina Muhlenkamp each added six.

Kiara Allen scored six points for the Scots, and Nikki Conley had five.

Freshman

The Patriots owned the first half as they improved to 4-1 with a 27-21 victory over Highland.

Shelby Gierhart scored 10 points to lead Jay County, which built a 14-4 lead in the first half, allowing just a single second-quarter point. The Scots got to within four at the end of the third quarter, but couldn't complete the comeback.

Kaylee Davis, Jamie Klinger and Brittany Muhlenkamp followed Gierhart with five points apiece.

Whitney Perry led the Scots with a game-high 13 points, and Dominque Davis scored four.[[In-content Ad]]