Jay Co. thrills Teagle vs. SA (12/15/03)

PORTLAND — Twenty-four hours made a big difference in Craig Teagle’s mood. It might take longer than that for Jason Ridge to be happy.

Teagle’s Jay County Patriots scored an impressive 43-29 victory Saturday night over Ridge’s South Adams Starfires.

The game marked a big rebound for Jay County (2-1) after squandering a 12-point third-quarter lead in a 57-55 loss to Fort Recovery a night earlier.

“(This win) was real important,” said senior Dustin Overton, who scored 10 points before leaving the game after twisting his ankle in the third quarter. “It’s a bounce back game. Tonight we did have something to prove — that we’re not going to go die after a tough loss like (Friday night).”

Teagle was thrilled with his team’s effort after he had thought they played without poise the night before.

“That’s the kind of basketball I love to see us play,” he said. “I thought we were aggressive offensively and defensively. We played with a purpose.”

Ridge had little good to say about his team’s effort.

“The bottom line is Jay County came out tonight hungrier than we were,” he said. “That was the difference.”

The Patriots took control of the game early, opening on a 13-3 run as South Adams (1-4) made just one basket in the first six minutes of play.

Trent Bailey opened the game with a 3-pointer on an assist from point guard Chad Keen, and Overton fed Mark Kelly with an assist before getting a score of his own for a 7-0 lead. The Starfires’ Kyle Neuenschwander broke the Jay County string with a 3-pointer three minutes into the game, but by the time South Adams scored again the contest was out of its control.

Overton dropped in two more baskets on assists from Corey Comer and Pinkerton, and Comer scored on assist from Keen as the Patriots took the 13-3 advantage.

They were up 17-7 after one quarter and never allowed the lead to shrink below seven points as they did everything well en route to the victory.

Five of the first six Jay County hoops were assisted, and the good passing continued throughout the game. With Keen leading the way with five, the Patriots had assists on 12 of their 20 successful field goals.

Keen and company did an excellent job of taking care of the ball, finishing with just nine turnovers. They also turned in their best shooting effort of the season, finishing at 47 percent.

“We are taking care of the ball pretty well,” said Teagle, whose team has averaged just 10 turnovers a game thus far despite the absence of three-year starting point guard Heath Williams. “I just thought last night at Fort Recovery when we did turn it over they were critical turnovers.”

Perhaps the most important reversal from the loss to Fort Recovery was Jay County’s much-improved work on the boards.

Mark Kelly had by far his best game of the, pacing the Patriots with 10 rebounds as they earned a 37-16 advantage on the glass. He also had eight points and a couple of blocked shots.

“After getting dominated on the boards last night everybody contributed tonight,” said Kelly. “When you’re in practice it’s a lot easier to get boards. When you come into the game it’s a little different. Coach just told me to keep at it and I did.”

“I think he’s getting better each game,” said Teagle. “It takes a while to get use to the varsity speed. In the second half I thought he did a better job of squaring offensively and crashing the backside offensive boards.”

Bailey and Comer followed Kelly with eight rebounds apiece. Bailey was the team’s top scorer with 14 points, and Comer finished with nine points.

South Adams’ top rebounders were Neuenschwander and Zimmerman, each with three.

Ridge said his team’s struggles went much deeper than its numbers on the boards or in any other statistical category.

“It’s not ever about rebounding,” he said. “It’s our effort. Our effort tonight was terrible.

“We didn’t come to win a basketball game.

“For all the progress we’ve made we just looked uncompetitive tonight.”

Neuenschwander was the Starfires’ high scorer with eight points. Four other players scored five points apiece as they shot just 12-of-40 (30 percent) from the field.

South Adams will try to regroup Friday at home against Heritage at 6 p.m. Jay County will return to action Saturday at Wapahani at 6:30 p.m.

Junior varsity

With four players putting in all the points Jay County scored a 38-26 victory over South Adams in the junior varsity contest Saturday.

The teams were tied after one period, but the Patriots took a four-point lead into halftime and gradually pulled away.

Tyler Dunnington led Jay County’s group of four with 13 points. Cory Locke had nine, and Nick May and Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman each scored eight.

Adam Heimann paced South Adams with 10 points.

Freshman

Jay County dominated the first game of the triple-header, doubling up South Adams for a 32-16 freshman-game victory.

The Starfires simply could not score in the first half, trailing 16-2 at halftime as the Patriots cruised to the win.

Rhett Retter scored seven points to lead Jay County. Kaleb Carpenter had six, Luke McClung scored five and Jon Wenger added four.

A.J. Vibbert and Brent Habegger scored six points apiece for South Adams.[[In-content Ad]]