Scoring woes continue in Pats' loss (01/17/04)

CONNERSVILLE — For about a quarter and a half the Jay County boys basketball team looked like it had found its offense again. But it soon fell back into what are becoming some all-too-familiar scoring woes.

The Patriots hit just four of their final 29 field goal attempts in dropping a 51-43 decision to the Olympic Athletic Conference rival Connersville Spartans Friday night.

“I thought our movement was still good, but shots just didn’t go down,” said Jay County coach Craig Teagle, whose team had just one fourth-quarter field goal. “At times we tried to get to the basket and get fouls and it just didn‚t happen.”

Jay County (5-4, 0-2 OAC) was again outshot at the foul line by its opponent, but not by nearly the margin it had been in its two losses a week earlier. Instead, the real problem for the Patriots was their inability to shoot the ball from the field as they finished at 34 percent.

Connersville (9-2, 2-0 OAC) bettered them by 11 percent, hitting 16 of its 35 field goal tries. After taking a 27-19 lead midway through the second quarter the Patriots began to struggle. They didn’t score for the rest of the half as Connersville clipped the lead to one point.

The Spartans then opened the second half with an 11-4 run for a 37-31 advantage, and they never gave up the lead. Jay County put together a 6-0 stretch to cut the deficit to one, but the home team got another big run to take control for good.

Senior guard On Richardson sealed the Patriots‚ fate, scooping up a wild rebound beyond the 3-point arc and hitting the long ball to complete an 8-0 Connersville rally with two minutes to play. Fellow senior Christopher Bloom nailed 4-of-5 free throws down the stretch to put the game away.

“He just read the reads on offense,” said Connersville coach Rodney Klein of Richardson, who finished with a game-high 17 points. “We were doing a real good job on the screens down low and when he got the ball back he was open.”

Teagle said he was frustrated because his team turned the ball over and showed poor shot selection at key moments. While the Patriots finished with just 11 turnovers to Connersville’s 14, they gave the ball away on back-to-back possessions four different times.

“That just kills in a low-possession game,” said Teagle. “And sometimes when you take a bad shot it’s just like a turnover. We didn’t have a lot of (bad shots) tonight, but they came at critical times.”

For the second time in three games Trent Bailey was the lone Patriot to reach double figures. He finshed with 11 points, five of which came from the free throw line.

Mark Kelly scored nine points, Dustin Overton had five and Mike Alberson notched four. Corey Comer had a game-high six rebounds, and Kelly and Overton each grabbed four. Overton had a game-high with five assists, and Williams added three. Klein said he hoped it was his team’s defensive changes which caused the Patriots problems.

“We thought we did a very good job of making some adjustments as to where we were positioning ourselves,” he said, pointing out that his guards weren’t helping down low in the first quarter. “We were worried about Bailey shooting from the outside early.”

But none of the Jay County players got anything going from long distance. Bailey was 0-for-3 from 3-point range, and the only shot the Patriots made from beyond the arc was a bomb by Kelly at the first-half buzzer. Richardson was aided a little here and a little there by everyone who stepped on the floor for Connersville.

Behind him Steele had seven points, Crayton Frost scored six and Tyler Blakely had five. Matthew Howard grabbed four rebounds, and six different Spartans each dished out one assist. Jay County will try to snap its three-game losing skid tonight when it host the Northeastern Knights at 6:30 p.m.

Junior varsity

Jay County lost a third straight tight junior varsity contest when Brandon Day hit a turn-around jumper at the buzzer to give Connersville a 33-32 victory. The Patriots led 31-28 after pair of Zac Green free throws with 39 seconds to got, but Matt Holbrook nailed the second of back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game 10 seconds later.

Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman gave Jay County a 32-31 advantage with a free throw with 13 seconds left, but Day earned the Spartans the victory when he hit the game-winning shot after gathering up a loose ball. Holbrook paced the Spartans with 11 points, and Day and Anthony Adams each had six. Tyler Dunnington paced Jay County with 10 points.

Green scored nine, and Randy Evans and Bruggeman each added five.[[In-content Ad]]