No. 7 stops the Patriots (02/09/08)

HUNTINGTON - The season ended exactly as it began, with a loss to the Archers.

Seventh-ranked Fort Wayne South Side handed the Jay County High School girls basketball team a four-point loss to open the season. The Archers, and namely Shavonda Price, proved too much again Friday night, ending an outstanding Patriot campaign 78-48 in the sectional semifinal round of Class 4A's Sectional 6 hosted by Huntington North.

Price turned in a line score to rival anyone who was on any court Friday night, finishing with 32 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and five blocks.

"She's the captain of this team and she really stepped it up," said South Side coach Andy Rang of the senior who powered the team to the 30-point win despite a pair of her fellow starters missing most of the game because of foul trouble. "Last year in this tournament she kind of came out of her shell a little bit. We got another one out of her tonight. She was really good."

The game itself looked as if it would be really good, a nail-biter resembling the first meeting when the Archers held on for a four-point win. A helter-skelter first half had South Side in front 33-29 at the intermission, but the second half belonged to the state-ranked squad.

After Jay County's Kaelee Keller scored the opening bucket of the third quarter, Price buried her lone 3-point attempt of the game to kick off a 9-0 Archer run. South Side (19-4) added a 12-0 run later in the half, and scored the final nine of the game to complete a 24-6 fourth period.

"I just think they picked up the intensity in the second half," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team dropped just two games between the bookend losses to South Side to finish at 18-4. "It was physical out there, and we didn't handle that very well. I think we started panicking, trying to make things happen ... It just kind of snowballed from there."

Thanks to Price, who was just one rebound away from a double-double at halftime, there was no panic for the Archers despite foul problems for starters Sydney Weinert (13.6 points per game) and Normalyn Smith (9.0 ppg).

They each had two personal fouls in the first quarter, and Weinert left the game for good after picking up a personal followed by a technical for slamming her hands on the court with 4:41 on the clock in the third quarter. Smith fouled out four seconds into the final period with having scored a point, while Weinert had 13 points and six rebounds in her limited time.

Price, however, shot 9-of-13 from the field and 13-of-14 at the line for her game-high scoring total. She seemed to be everywhere, wreaking havoc under the basket and assisting on both of Nia Banks' second-half 3-pointers.

Brittany Johnson scored 10 points, and Banks added nine as the Archers shot 56 percent from the field and made 24 free throws to far outweigh their 29 turnovers.

"I was just really pleased," said Rang. "I told them it was a great team effort. Everyone stepped up. ... When you've got two starters out ... you need a couple of people to step up, and they did tonight."

Jay County followed its game plan well in the first half, aggressively attacking the South Side full-court pressure. The Patriots were up 16-15 at the quarter break after Kaelee Keller, who led the way with 14 points, buried a pair of free throws late in the period.

The lead shifted a few times early in the second quarter, but then the Archers pulled ahead for good.

"I think we made better decisions in the first half than we did in the second half," said Comer, who also got 10 points from senior Cassandra Huelskamp.

"They switched the defense up a little bit in the second half, they went to a 1-3-1, and we were out of position. ... They made an adjustment and we didn't respond very well to it. I think that was the key to the game."

After burying nine 3-pointers in Tuesday's sectional-opening win over Fort Wayne North Side, the Patriots hit just 2-of-13 versus South Side.

The Archers also dominated the glass behind Price, turning in a 42-24 rebounding advantage.

"The game plan was to try to take the threes away from them, try to take the perimeter away," said Rang. "I thought our girls did a really good job of that. And then once we took those away, we really secured the rebounds, the defensive boards, and didn't give them second shots."

Jay County's 17-3 regular season was one of the best in school history. The Patriots' 18 wins overall fell just two short of the school record, which was set in 1985-86.

Following the defeat, Comer took a final opportunity to praise his seniors Dana Horn, Abby Loy, Amber Edmundson, Sharon Dirksen and Huelskamp.

"They're outstanding," he said of the group that helped contribute to 43 wins over the course of the last three seasons. "I told them in the locker room after the game, they've had an awful lot of success throughout their career. ... They have a lot to be proud of.

"Not only are the good basketball players, but they're great young ladies. They're going to be greatly missed."[[In-content Ad]]