Resilient Pats take title (02/16/04)

ELWOOD — CBS draws big ratings every year as fans tune in to see the drama of March Madness. The network may want to think about sending some cameras Jay County’s way with the kind of February fireworks it is becoming accustomed to producing.

The Patriot girls basketball team weathered another outstanding effort by an opposing post player, winning its second straight sectional title with a nail-biting 50-49 victory over the Tipton Blue Devils at Elwood Saturday.

“It’s amazing,” said senior Felisha Parr. “That’s all I can say. I’m so happy. We played a great game.”

“It feels great,” said fellow senior Lindsay Friddle, who finished with a team-high 18 points. “It was nerve-wracking at the end.”

Tipton’s Brittany Tragesser scored 11 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, bringing her team back from an 11-point deficit. She narrowly missed a double-double as she grabbed nine rebounds.

The Patriots (14-8) still looked to have the game locked up with a one-point lead, possession of the ball and just 1.7 seconds to play. But Jamie Bruggeman fumbled the inbound pass out of bounds, leaving 0.8 seconds for the Blue Devils to work with.

However, Rochelle Baas couldn’t hold on to Tipton’s inbound pass and Bruggeman redeemed herself by cradling the ball as time expired.

“Oh my god, they do (like to make it interesting),” said Jay County coach Lea Selvey, whose team needed overtime to get past Mississinewa in the first round and beat Delta by four points in Friday’s semifinal game. “They battle and battle. I thought there was a time we might crack, but we battled back.

“All I know is these kids have got class. They just refused to lose.”

With their eighth victory in the last 10 games the Patriots earned a second straight trip to the Peru regional where they will meet the No. 3 Tippecanoe Valley Vikings (20-2) Saturday at 10 a.m. Tippecanoe Valley won the Fort Wayne Elmhurst sectional with victories over the host Trojans, Norwell and Fort Wayne Wayne.

No. 4 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (19-3) will play NorthWood (16-7) in the other semifinal contest at noon. The winners will play in the championship contest Saturday at 7 p.m.

Jay County looked to be in control against Titpon, leading by 11 points at halftime and maintaining that advantage heading into the final period. But the Blue Devils did their best Mississinewa impression, erasing the deficit in a matter of three minutes.

Tipton (10-12) caught fire, dominating the offensive glass and forcing several Patriot turnovers. Tragesser did her part, scoring the final nine points of a 12-1 run which put the Blue Devils up 40-39 with 5:12 on the clock.

However, Sarah Dirksen hit a pair of free throws eight seconds later and Jay County never trailed again. Tipton cut the lead to one point on two more occasions, but failed on the last-ditch effort when Baas couldn’t hold on to the ball.

After allowing the Blue Devils back into the game, the Patriots won the contest by hitting 11 of their final 12 free throws. All of their 12 fourth-quarter points came from the line as they finished 20-of-25 (80 percent).

“That’s just total concentration,” said Selvey of the foul-shooting accuracy. “They worked at it, but to hit them under the types of circumstances they did today is just amazing. I guess they just like pressure.”

“We like to keep it interesting,” joked Friddle. “I don’t know (how we do it). I really don’t.”

Selvey described his senior point guard’s effort with a single word.

“Awesome,” he said of Friddle, who had four rebounds and two assists to go along with her team-high point total. “She came in here on a mission. She’s had a great tournament.”

It was the second straight season Jay County followed a crazy sectional path.

Last year the Patriots nearly lost in the first round to a Peru team which had only one victory, but returned to the Blackford sectional a night later to beat Norwell in double overtime for the sectional title.

This year the first-round threat came from three-win Mississinewa — a team Jay County beat by 44 during the regular season — which rallied from 16 points down with five minutes to go and had a two-point lead with less than 10 seconds on the clock. But Lisa Weitzel nailed a buzzer-beater to force overtime in that game Tuesday, and the Patriots went on to beat Delta Friday and then Tipton for the title.

“Last year we played that way against Peru and won it,” said Parr of her team’s opening round. “I guess that’s just the way it goes. We come back and play awesome in the rest of the games.”

Jay County was excellent in the first half against the Blue Devils, building the 11-point advantage as it hit 5-of-9 3-point tries. Friddle hit three of her four attempts in the game from long distance.

Friddle and Tragesser were the only two players in double figures in the contest, but the Jay County senior just a bit more help than her Tipton counterpart.

Weitzel was second for the Patriots with seven points, and Bruggeman had six. Parr and Dirksen each had five points.

Bruggeman led a balanced rebounding effort with seven, and also led Jay County with three assists. Leah Gasparovic added six boards, and Weitzel and Parr each had five.

Monica Planalp trailed far behind Tragesser with five points. Kilah Dickey, Loren Sloan and Baas each added four.

Dickey and Sloan each grabbed six boards. Dickey finished with a pair of assists.[[In-content Ad]]