Jay tops Stars (12/13/04)

BERNE — Two teams continued their tendencies Saturday night.

The Jay County Patriots would like to continue the trend. The South Adams Starfires would rather kick the habit.

Jay County pulled away from the Starfires in the second half, improving to 4-1 with a 54-35 victory.

The win marks the third straight season in which the Patriots have started at 4-1 or better. They were 5-1 last season, and matched a school record with a 6-1 start to the 2002-03 season.

They will have a tough task to match those numbers this year, as their next game comes against the Class 4A No. 3 Muncie Central Bearcats at home Friday at 6:30 p.m.

“If you get off to a bad start it can make for a long season,” said Jay County senior Andy Pinkerton, who was one of three Patriots in double figures with 10 points. “A good start just gives the whole team the confidence they need.”

South Adams is on a different kind of streak.

The Starfires are 0-5 this year and have lost a school-record 17 in a row. They will try to break that streak when they visit 0-3 Heritage Friday at 6 p.m.

As has been the case many times this year for South Adams, it stayed in the game in the first half. It scored 14 points in the first quarter to lead by one, and was still up by one before Trent Bailey and Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman combined to score the final four points of the first half.

Jay County parlayed that close to the first half into a 9-0 run as Bailey, Pinkerton and Mark Kelly combined to score the first five points of the second.

The Starfires pulled back to within four points, but that was as close as they would get. With the lead back to 10 points, the Patriots ran off seven in a row midway through the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Bailey paced Jay County with 17 points, and Mark Kelly added 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Kelly and Corey Comer each grabbed five rebounds, and Pinkerton, Bailey and Bruggeman added four apiece as Jay County held a 29-22 advantage on the boards.

Bruggeman also dished out six assists, and the Patriots committed just five turnovers.

“I think what really hurt us is we missed four easy shots to start with,” said Jay County coach Craig Teagle of the first half. “It was a slow start, but the kids responded in the second half to find a way to do what they needed to do to get a win.”

Corey LeMaster single-handedly kept the Starfires in the game as he scored 19 points. More than half of those came from the free-throw line where he was a perfect 10-for-10.

He also shot 4-of-6 from the field.

However, the rest of the South Adams team went went 6-of-23 from the field (26 percent) and 1-of-8 from the foul line (13 percent). Jordan Sharp was the No. 2 scorer for the Starfires with eight points, and no one else had more than three.

Teagle said although LeMaster continued to play well, a change in the defensive pressure helped to stifle the opposing offense. South Adams had just 15 points in the entire second half after posting 14 in the first period.

“In the second half we just made a slight adjustment,” Teagle said. “We tried to deny (LeMaster) the ball in and come up the court and make some of those other guys bring it up.”

Retter leads balanced Pats

Rhett Retter scored 10 points to lead a balanced scoring effort as the Jay County junior varsity squad topped South Adams 44-32.

Retter was the lone Patriot in double figures, but he was followed by Clint Muhlenkamp and Randy Evans, who each scored nine points. Casey Waters was next with eight points.

Jay County took control early, leading 13-5 after the first period.

The teams each scored nine points in the second quarter and eight in the third before the Patriots pulled away in the fourth.

Daniel Bollenbacher and Andy Caffee each had seven points for the Starfires. Blake Scheiderer finished with five points.[[In-content Ad]]