Jay wins 10th straight (02/16/08)

UNION CITY - At the rate the Patriots are going, opposing teams may as well fast forward through the second quarter and hope for better things after halftime.

For the second straight game the Jay County High School boys basketball team turned in a dominant second period. It keyed their 10th consecutive victory, a 51-34 triumph over the Union City Indians.

"The kids have really bought in to their roles," said JCHS coach Craig Teagle of the winning streak, which has already secured his team a seventh straight winning season. "They're maximizing their potentional. They're sharing the ball offensively, and they're playing great team defense."

Taylor Jenkinson had seven points on 3-of-4 shooting in the first quarter and scored a game-high 21 points. But neither he nor any of his teammates - only three Indians scored in the game - could crack the Patriots in the second quarter.

After Jenkinson pulled the Tribe within 13-10 with 38 seconds to go in the opening period, Jay County (12-4) scored the opening seven points of the second. Roy Frazier ended a three-and-a-half minute Union City drought with a hoop at the 5:01 mark of the second quarter, but that was all the home team could manage.

They didn't score again until the 7:10 mark of the third quarter, finishing the second 1-of-12 from the field. The effort came on the heels of Tuesday night's game, in which Eastbrook finished the second quarter 0-of-8 from the field against the Patriots.

"A lot of that is just we did a good job pushing them out of their offense, and I thought we contested shots a lot better," said Teagle after his team held Union City to just 28 percent from the field. "Jenkinson had had the hot hand earlier, but we did a lot better job making him take shots we contested."

Jay County's 15-2 second quarter pushed it to a 16-point halftime lead, which never slipped to fewer than 13 after the intermission.

Despite shooing under 50 percent from the field for the first time since Jan. 11, a trio of Patriots scored in double figures.

Senior point guard Luke Goetz led the effort. He turned in a personal 6-0 run spanning halftime and made all of his six free-throw attempts - the team hit 17-of-20 foul shots for 85 percent - for 13 points.

He also had three assists.

Clint Muhlenkamp, another senior, scored 11 points despite being limited by foul trouble. He shot 4-of-5 from the field and 3-of-4 from the line.

Adam Garringer added a 5-of-6 effort at the line for 10 points.

"(Clint) did a good job," said Teagle. "We needed (Nate Moore) attacked, because he was trying to play under the rim and protect the basket."

Billy Wellman, the team's leading scorer, finished without a point, but his seven rebounds led JCHS to a 29-19 advantage on the glass. Kyle Simmons added sfour rebounds.

Jenkinson and Frazier (10 points) reached double figures for Union City (10-6), but the only other Indian to score was Moore with three points. Moore and Frazier each grabbed five rebounds.

Junior varsity

Jay County jumped out to a seven-point, first-quarter lead as it improved to 11-6 on the season with a 33-21 victory over the Indians.

Dexter Shreve scored six of his game-high 10 points in the opening quarter as the Patriots went up 11-4. They were still up by seven after three quarters, and closed out the game with an 8-3 advantage in the fourth.

Brad Horn added seven points, including two third-quarter 3-pointers, for Jay County. Garrett Krieg totaled five points.

Adam Bond led Union City with seven points. Kaleb Steveson chipped in five points.[[In-content Ad]]