Jay County's pressure D crushes hosts (02/11/06)

GAS CITY — The bling looked good on the Patriots Friday night.

When Jay County went to its diamond press, the Mississinewa Indians seemed blinded. The Patriots repeatedly trapped the host team in the corners, and forced a couple of 10-second calls.

The result was an 11-0 run for Jay County, which went on to dominate the second half in a 66-25 semifinal victory in the Class 3A girls basketball sectional tournament at Mississinewa.

“We thought our press tonight could be effective,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose squad forced 27 turnovers in all. “We needed to turn them over and get us more opportunities and we did that.”

The Patriots move on to tonight’s sectional championship game — their fourth consecutive appearance in a sectional finale — to play the Elwood Panthers at 7:30 p.m. Elwood advanced to the title game with a 42-29 victory over Blackford Friday.

Mississinewa (2-19) was still in Friday’s semifinal game midway through the second quarter when the Patriots really started putting the pressure on. They forced turnover after turnover, pushing from an eight-point lead to a 32-13 advantage in just three minutes.

After giving the ball away six times in the opening period, the Indians gave it away 10 in the second and never recovered from a 35-16 halftime deficit. They got to within 16 points with 4:37 to go in the third quarter, but did not score the rest of the game.

“We definitely struggled with their pressure,” said Mississinewa coach Nikki Percy after watching the Patriots score the game’s final 25 points. “They’re a very, very physical and aggressive team. Sometimes we struggle with that and tonight that was the case.”

While Comer said his team missed some easy opportunities — it shot just 38 percent in the win — Jay County did look good from the free-throw line.

It was one of the better foul-shooting nights of the season for the Patriots as they finished 14-of-16, including a 4-of-4 effort from Theresa Reinhart. Whitney Homan, Abby Loy and Markie Runyon were each 2-for-2 from the line.

Jay County was also efficient from long distance, going 4-of-8 from 3-point range in the first half with one of those misses on a half-court heave at the first-quarter buzzer. Dana Horn hit a pair of triples before the intermission, and Reinhart and Sara Garringer each had one.

Reinhart had an outstanding opening half, scoring 11 of her game-high 14 points before the intermission. Garringer finished with 12 points and four assists.

The Patriots took about 30 more shots than Mississinewa thanks to the turnovers and a 41-16 rebounding advantage. Cassandra Huelskamp had a game-high eight rebounds. Whitney Homan added six boards, including four on the offensive end in the first half, and Nicole Pfeifer and Abby Loy each had five.

“We rebounded the ball well,” said Comer. “We’ve got to be able to rebound tomorrow, and I thought our boxing out was a lot better. ... We’ve worked extremely hard on that.”

Comer’s squad will get a second crack at Elwood after coming so close in December. Jay County led the regular-season meeting by nine in the fourth quarter before Panther star Kyleigh Jones scored 22 points in the final six minutes for a total of 36 to lead her team back to a 58-51 win.

Jones had just five points in Elwood’s win over Blackford Friday, and scored 11 in the first round Tuesday against Tipton. She ranks fourth in the state with a 24.4 points per game average.

Shalynn Wright scored 13 points, including seven in the first period, to lead Elwood over Blackford. Sam Starcher added 12 points.

“Elwood’s an excellent team,” said Comer. “They’ve got an outstanding player in Kyleigh Jones. ... We’ve got to be able to contain her and not let all the other girls beat us.

“I think if we come out tomorrow night and play with the same intensity we had tonight ... this year the girls believe that they can win. I think that right there means a lot. We’re coming here tomorrow night to win.”[[In-content Ad]]