Jay blasts Southside

MUNCIE - The Patriots have lost a starter to injury. They have not, however, lost their touch against Muncie Southside.

Jay County racked up another lopsided win over the Rebels Friday night, trouncing its Olympic Athletic Conference rival 51-16 despite the loss of junior guard Cara Garringer.

It was the eighth time the Patriots have defeated Southside by 30 or more points in their last 10 meetings, a margin that gave the team an opportunity to get plenty of work with its new lineup.

"I think that was big," said JCHS coach Luke Cummings, "it was kind of something we needed tonight. ... Defensively (Southside) did a nice job of putting pressure on (Kassi Hemmelgarn) and Pazia (Speed) ... and that's what we needed to see. Kassi took care of it and I thought (Mollie) May and (Maria) Murphy did a good job inside."

Hemmelgarn is in line for major minutes at point guard after the loss of Garringer, who was the team's No. 2 scorer among returning players and had six assist before leaving Tuesday's season-opener against Fort Wayne South Side with a knee injury. That injury turned out to be a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in her right knee, and Garringer said before Friday's game that her season is over and surgery is scheduled for late December.

"The hardest thing is just for her to miss out on her junior season," said Cummings. "As hard as she's worked through her career ... for her to lose a season just hurts us all. You never want to see a player go through that."

Against Muncie Southside Friday, sophomore forward Mariah Hornaday got off to a quick start, scoring back-to-back hoops on assists from Katie Butcher and Speed. She added a free-throw as she scored the first five JCHS points, and Speed later buried a pull-up 3-pointer to cap the team's 10-0 run to start the game.

"It's huge," said Cummings of the quick start for Hornaday, who finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. "With her starting the game like that, finishing inside ... just shows how she's continued to improve. I don't know if she knows how good she can be. She's got a very high ceiling. ... It was big tonight to get her going."

Cortney Smith got the Rebels (0-1) on the board with a free throw 4:32 into the game, but Jay County (2-0, 1-0 OAC) responded with another 12 consecutive points to take complete control. Southside went without a field goal - it was 0-for-6 with eight turnovers - until Smith scored at the 6:42 mark of the second quarter.

"Those games are tough to play sometimes, but I thought we stuck to what we wanted to do," said Cummings, whose team led by 27 at halftime. "I thought we played solid. ... I was happy with how we continued to execute.

"I thought we focused really well."

Speed joined Hornaday in double figures with 13 points, and Katie Butcher added seven points and five rebounds. The rest of the scoring was spread out between Murphy (five points), LeAnn Horn (four), May (three), Danielle Link (three), Hemmelgarn (three) and Erin Hunt (two). May grabbed three rebounds, and Hunt dished out three assists.

Smith scored all but three of Southside's points.

Through two games, Jay County has allowed just 48 points and less than 30 percent shooting.

"There's still obviously stuff that we can learn, but I think these two games help a lot of those things," said Cummings of his team's zone defense. He added that watching tape of their opener during practice Wednesday helped focus the team. "We see some different things that the players can't see when they're out there. ... I thought tonight we really made only one or two misteakes where (Smith) got free."

Junior varsity

The Patriots racked up 20 first-quarter points on the way to a 50-15 victory over Southside.

LeAnn Horn scored eight of her 10 points for Jay County (2-0) in the opening half, and Mollie May also scored 10 points. The team led 36-11 at the half, and outscored the Rebels 10-0 in the final period.

Shelby Shirk, Maria Murphy and Rachelle Jackson added six points apiece.

Morgan Coats led Southside with seven points. Erica Douthi added four.[[In-content Ad]]