July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Jay Co. halts Trojans (01/04/08)
JCHS girls basketball
Jay Co. halts Trojans (01/04/08)
By By RAY COONEY-
The schedule brought another challenge, and the Patriots answered it.
With a pair of long winning streaks colliding, it was the Jay County High School girls basketball team that kept rolling. It took the lead midway through the opening quarter and never trailed again in a 53-49 victory over the visiting New Castle Trojans.
"I think this game from a mental standpoint is huge," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team extended its winning streak to 13 games while halting the Trojans' at seven. "We knew that New Castle was an outstanding team and we wanted to see if we could raise our level of play to theirs."
Jay County (13-1) has had its share of blowout wins since dropping the season opener 62-58 to Class 4A No. 6 Fort Wayne South Side, but have also responded to every challenge thrown their way since.
Facing state-ranked Winchester Nov. 17, the Patriots notched a solid 10-point win.
Hosting an undefeated Norwell squad a week later, they dominated the fourth quarter to turn a double-digit deficit into an 11-point victory.
Trailing at halftime on the road Dec. 8 they rallied to knock off Olympic Athletic Conference rival Anderson Highland by two.
Locked in a battle Saturday with state-line rival Fort Recovery, they owned the second half for a 51-35 win.
The Trojans (10-2) brought the latest, and perhaps greatest, challenge as they sliced what was once a double-digit Jay County lead to just two points with 3:06 to play. But with the game on the line the Patriots held the visitors without a field goal for more than three minutes.
"One thing they do well is they mix their defenses," said New Castle coach Curt Bell, whose team's only field goal in the final three minutes came at the buzzer. "We just couldn't get our rhythm there. They just do a nice job. They play hard. They don't give you anything easy."
Trading trips to the foul line, Jay County pushed ahead 51-47. New Castle had a chance to really make the Patriots sweat, but a 3-pointer by Macey Elyea rimmed out with 1:11 to play.
The margin remained four points when Pazia Speed stepped to the foul line with 14.7 seconds to play. Again the Trojans had a chance as both free throws missed the mark, but JCHS sophomore Lindsay Wellman grabbed the offensive rebound and scored to put the game away.
"For us, it was second chance points," said Bell, whose team's only other loss came by two points to Connersville. "They took advantage of us on the boards tonight. You can't give up that many second-chance points and win the game. They were relentless on the boards."
The Patriots dominated the glass 17-8 in building their double-digit lead in the first half. They finished with a five-rebound advantage for the game.
"I thought we did a really good job on the boards," said Comer. "We went four hard to the boards every time. It was just a battle of who wanted it worse."
A balanced scoring effort - six players had five or more points - keyed the Patriots, with a couple of them turning in great stretches.
Amber Edmundson powered the Patriots in the second quarter, scoring more than half of their 16 points. She went 3-of-4 from the field and the line in the period, in which she scored all of her nine points.
Speed was the star of the second half, powering through Nia Knowling for a three-point play three minutes after the intermission and grabbing a rebound and going coast-to-coast in the final six seconds of the third quarter.
She led Jay County in everything, posting team highs of 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
"She's just so athletic," said Comer of Speed. "People tonight got to see what kind of player Pazia Speed is.
"She's a gamer. She came into her own tonight.
"(Amber) played with confidence. She was on a mission out there. We felt like our post players could be an advantage tonight.
"We tried to get the ball inside as much as we could."
Kaelee Keller matched Edmundson with nine points, Cassandra Huelskamp scored six points on two first-quarter 3-pointers and Wellman and Abby Loy each added five. Wellman totaled six rebounds.
Macey Elyea buried four 3-pointers for New Castle and scored a game-high 14 points. She also had seven rebounds.
Kayla Jones hit a trio of triples and scored 11 points.
Junior varsity
Katie Butcher broke a tie game with about two minutes to play and Jay County closed with a 10-0 run for a 44-34 victory over the Trojans.
Miranda Wallen hit a pair of free throws with 2:33 left in the game to tie the score at 34. Butcher and Gina Muhlenkamp hit a pair of hoops to push the Patriots ahead 38-34, and they did the rest of their scoring from the foul line as New Castle turned the ball over three times in the final 1:30.
Cara Garringer scored all of her team-high 11 points for JCHS in the first and fourth quarters. Danielle Link had seven points, and Butcher and Muhlenkamp each added five. All of Butcher's points came during the closing 10-0 run.
Wallen paced the Trojans with 14 points, and Alyssa Lee added nine.[[In-content Ad]]
With a pair of long winning streaks colliding, it was the Jay County High School girls basketball team that kept rolling. It took the lead midway through the opening quarter and never trailed again in a 53-49 victory over the visiting New Castle Trojans.
"I think this game from a mental standpoint is huge," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team extended its winning streak to 13 games while halting the Trojans' at seven. "We knew that New Castle was an outstanding team and we wanted to see if we could raise our level of play to theirs."
Jay County (13-1) has had its share of blowout wins since dropping the season opener 62-58 to Class 4A No. 6 Fort Wayne South Side, but have also responded to every challenge thrown their way since.
Facing state-ranked Winchester Nov. 17, the Patriots notched a solid 10-point win.
Hosting an undefeated Norwell squad a week later, they dominated the fourth quarter to turn a double-digit deficit into an 11-point victory.
Trailing at halftime on the road Dec. 8 they rallied to knock off Olympic Athletic Conference rival Anderson Highland by two.
Locked in a battle Saturday with state-line rival Fort Recovery, they owned the second half for a 51-35 win.
The Trojans (10-2) brought the latest, and perhaps greatest, challenge as they sliced what was once a double-digit Jay County lead to just two points with 3:06 to play. But with the game on the line the Patriots held the visitors without a field goal for more than three minutes.
"One thing they do well is they mix their defenses," said New Castle coach Curt Bell, whose team's only field goal in the final three minutes came at the buzzer. "We just couldn't get our rhythm there. They just do a nice job. They play hard. They don't give you anything easy."
Trading trips to the foul line, Jay County pushed ahead 51-47. New Castle had a chance to really make the Patriots sweat, but a 3-pointer by Macey Elyea rimmed out with 1:11 to play.
The margin remained four points when Pazia Speed stepped to the foul line with 14.7 seconds to play. Again the Trojans had a chance as both free throws missed the mark, but JCHS sophomore Lindsay Wellman grabbed the offensive rebound and scored to put the game away.
"For us, it was second chance points," said Bell, whose team's only other loss came by two points to Connersville. "They took advantage of us on the boards tonight. You can't give up that many second-chance points and win the game. They were relentless on the boards."
The Patriots dominated the glass 17-8 in building their double-digit lead in the first half. They finished with a five-rebound advantage for the game.
"I thought we did a really good job on the boards," said Comer. "We went four hard to the boards every time. It was just a battle of who wanted it worse."
A balanced scoring effort - six players had five or more points - keyed the Patriots, with a couple of them turning in great stretches.
Amber Edmundson powered the Patriots in the second quarter, scoring more than half of their 16 points. She went 3-of-4 from the field and the line in the period, in which she scored all of her nine points.
Speed was the star of the second half, powering through Nia Knowling for a three-point play three minutes after the intermission and grabbing a rebound and going coast-to-coast in the final six seconds of the third quarter.
She led Jay County in everything, posting team highs of 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
"She's just so athletic," said Comer of Speed. "People tonight got to see what kind of player Pazia Speed is.
"She's a gamer. She came into her own tonight.
"(Amber) played with confidence. She was on a mission out there. We felt like our post players could be an advantage tonight.
"We tried to get the ball inside as much as we could."
Kaelee Keller matched Edmundson with nine points, Cassandra Huelskamp scored six points on two first-quarter 3-pointers and Wellman and Abby Loy each added five. Wellman totaled six rebounds.
Macey Elyea buried four 3-pointers for New Castle and scored a game-high 14 points. She also had seven rebounds.
Kayla Jones hit a trio of triples and scored 11 points.
Junior varsity
Katie Butcher broke a tie game with about two minutes to play and Jay County closed with a 10-0 run for a 44-34 victory over the Trojans.
Miranda Wallen hit a pair of free throws with 2:33 left in the game to tie the score at 34. Butcher and Gina Muhlenkamp hit a pair of hoops to push the Patriots ahead 38-34, and they did the rest of their scoring from the foul line as New Castle turned the ball over three times in the final 1:30.
Cara Garringer scored all of her team-high 11 points for JCHS in the first and fourth quarters. Danielle Link had seven points, and Butcher and Muhlenkamp each added five. All of Butcher's points came during the closing 10-0 run.
Wallen paced the Trojans with 14 points, and Alyssa Lee added nine.[[In-content Ad]]
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