Jay County falls to Elwood (12/31/07)

Expect the unexpected.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team had not beaten Muncie Central in its previous seven tries. A week ago the Patriots went on the road and beat the Bearcats, who were 5-1 at the time.

JCHS had never lost to Elwood, and had won each of the last five meetings by double digits. Saturday night, the visiting Panthers overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to stun the Patriots 46-39.

"We've told them from the beginning, we're capable of beating anybody on our schedule, but anybody on our schedule is capable of beating us," said Jay County coach Craig Teagle, whose team dropped to 3-4 in its quest for a seventh straight winning season. "Once we got down we could never get back over the hump, but we should have never put ourselves in that position where we had to fight back. We had an 11-point lead and just didn't play very smart to start the second half."

That final 16 minutes was torturous for the Patriots.

After scoring the final eight points of the opening half, they managed just 11 after the intermission.

They shot just 4-of-22 (18 percent) from the field.

And they turned the ball over 13 times.

Elwood took advantage, dominating the third quarter 17-3. It claimed the lead on a Jacob Dunnichay 3-pointer with 1:10 left in the period. Dunnichay and Nate Wills combined for 17 of the Panthers' points as the visitors score 19 of the first 22 in the second half and eventually pushed to a 44-37 lead.

Jay County had repeated chances as neither team executed very well down the stretch, but it never chased in. The last opportunity came after pulling within 44-39 with 1:16 to play. Elwood turned the ball over on its next possession, but the Patriots missed three shots - including two 3-pointers - on their end before Thomas Abner got a break-away lay-up to seal the game.

The win was the fourth straight for the Panthers after an 0-4 start, and was their first in seven tries against JCHS. Elwood has not had a winning

season since going 14-7 in 2001-02.

"I told the guys, this is the biggest win we've had (at Elwood) for a long time," said fourth-year coach Kyle Hobbs. "For our guys to be able to come here ... and beat them on their home court, and against a team that normally just doesn't panic and normally takes care of the ball, I'm extremely proud of the guys. Our guys followed the game plan to a T."

The Panthers (4-4), who won just five games a year ago, paraded to the foul line against Jay County, getting into the bonus in the third quarter and the double bonus with 5:24 left in the game. They shot 30 free throws and outscored the Patriots 19-4 from the foul line.

Wills paced the Panthers as 12 of his game-high 15 points game in the second half. Dunnichay added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists, and Wills and Dunnichay each went 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

Nathaniel Jones scored eight points, and Abner chipped in seven points and six rebounds.

Jay County looked to be in good shape after a 22-point second quarter, but managed just 11 points in the second half. The Patriots also struggled to keep control of the ball, despite facing a zone defense.

"We didn't take care of the basketball at all," said Teagle. "A lot of that is just a lack of intensity or a lack of focus on the offensive end.

"That's just bad ball-handling, not creating passing angles, not ball-faking, and also not stepping to the basketball ... We just got in a funk in the second half."

Hobbs said despite being in the half-court zone look he allowed Dunnichay to pressure the ball a bit more in the second half, which resulted in more easy hoops for his team.

"That caused them some problems, got us some turnovers, got us some easy baskets, which at that point is what we needed," said Hobbs. "Jay County and Delta are the two teams that are just really good defensively that we play. And what we needed to get us going were some easy baskets. Those turnovers in the third quarter got us back in the game and gave our guys a little confidence."

No Patriots scored in double figures as Billy Wellman led them with nine points. Adam Garringer and Clint Muhlenkamp each had seven points, and Aaron Daniels scored six.

Muhlenkamp grabbed eight rebounds, and Goetz and Daniels each had three assists.

Teagle credited Daniels as one of the few positives in the game as the senior keyed the team's big second quarter. He picked Dunnichay's pocket a couple of times and added a few deflections leading to several easy hoops for the Patriots.

"I think what sparked us in the first half was Aaron Daniels," said Teagle. "He played really well, got two or three deflections that got us going. ... He really gave us some momentum. It's too bad we didn't build on that in the second half."

Junior varsity

Jay County let a 23-point, second-quarter lead slip back to single digits, but still held off the Panthers 43-36.

The Patriots outscored Elwood 19-4 in the opening quarter, and then score the first eight points of the second for a 27-4 lead. However the Panthers scored the final seven points of the first half, and then closed the gap to 30-20 with one period to play.

They got a couple of possessions in the fourth quarter, but Jay County fended off the comeback attempt.

Eric Homan scored 14 points to lead the Patriots, and Brad Horn followed with 12. Josh Beaty added eight points.

Tyler Creasy did most of the work for Elwood, scoring more than half of his team's points with 19. Chris Young had six points, and Derek Wells finished with five.[[In-content Ad]]