July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Semi stunned (02/14/2009)
JCHS girls basketball
Semi stunned (02/14/2009)
By By RAY COONEY-
FORT WAYNE - There is no good time to lose.
But there most certainly are bad times.
For the Patriots, Friday night was the worst.
Ashley Stalling's put-back of her own miss at the buzzer lifted the Fort Wayne South Side Archers to a 51-49 victory in Class 4A Sectional 6 semifinal action, bringing an abrupt end to No. 6 Jay County's perfect season.
"You've got to give Fort Wayne South Side all the credit," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team finished at 18-1. "They kept battling and kept battling. They got us to turn the ball over.
"They were well-prepared. They were the better team tonight."
Jay County, which defeated the Archers by 19 in the season opener, had possession with the game tied and 1:06 left to play. It tried to hold for the last shot, hoping to isolate senior point guard Kaelee Keller and break down the defense.
Instead, a turnover gave the ball back to South Side with 35 seconds left.
The Archers (18-4) mimicked the JCHS strategy, holding the ball as the clock ticked away. In the 10 seconds, point guard Brittany Johnson went on the attack, and then saw Ashley Stalling streaking toward the basket from the left corner.
Stalling took a perfect bounce pass from Johnson only to miss a wide-open lay-up with about three seconds to go. But, Stalling was able to grab the rebound and toss the ball back up.
It slipped through the net as the final tenths disappeared along with the Patriots' undefeated season.
"She kept after it," said South Side coach Andy Rang of Stalling, a junior. "She kept fighting and she made a great shot."
Stalling finished with 10 points, but the game-winning shot accounted for her only points of the second half.
Sydney Weinert, who will play college ball at IPFW, led the Archers with 15 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Johnson added 11 points and three assists.
"It just seems like in the semifinal every year we come up big," said Rang, whose team beat Jay County by 30 in the same round last season. "And the girls did that again tonight.
"They executed really well down the stretch. They hit some really big shots.
"They ran what we wanted to at the end perfectly."
The Patriots led by as many as 10 in the first half, but saw their lead dwindle as South Side picked up the full-court pressure after the intermission. They failed to score for the first 3:45 of the third quarter, turning the ball over eight times in the period.
Weinert's three-point play put the Archers up 34-31 with 3:15 to play in the third quarter, but Jay County regrouped. It pushed back ahead by eight points with a 14-0 run that included 10 points from Lindsey Wellman.
In a game in which both teams struggled from the foul line - the Patriots were 9-of-20 and South Side 10-of-24 - JCHS missed six free throws in the final six minutes. The Archers forged the tie at 49 on a 3-pointer by Nia Banks, setting up Stalling's late heroics.
South Side's pressure forced 13 second-half turnovers as Jay County gave the ball away 21 times in the game.
"We haven't pressed as much as we did last year," said Rang. "I think it might have caught them by surprise."
The Patriots got monster efforts from junior's Wellman and Speed in the defeat.
Wellman poured in a game-high 19 points, which included hitting both of her 3-point attempts. She also shared game highs with three rebounds and two blocks.
Speed, who stands 5-foot-7, had the unenviable task of guarding the 6-foot-2 Weinert most of the evening. Even so, she scored 15 points and racked up 14 rebounds.
However, no other JCHS player scored more than four points in the defeat.
"There's a lot of different things that played into tonight," said Comer. "It just unfortunate that our first loss had to come in the sectional."
The Patriots were state-ranked for most of the 2008-09 campaign, the first undefeated regular season in school history.
They fell two wins short of tying the single-season team record for victories.
"It's the best season in the history of Jay County girls basketball," added Comer. "It's hard to realize tonight what kind of season they had. But this is a very special team."
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But there most certainly are bad times.
For the Patriots, Friday night was the worst.
Ashley Stalling's put-back of her own miss at the buzzer lifted the Fort Wayne South Side Archers to a 51-49 victory in Class 4A Sectional 6 semifinal action, bringing an abrupt end to No. 6 Jay County's perfect season.
"You've got to give Fort Wayne South Side all the credit," said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team finished at 18-1. "They kept battling and kept battling. They got us to turn the ball over.
"They were well-prepared. They were the better team tonight."
Jay County, which defeated the Archers by 19 in the season opener, had possession with the game tied and 1:06 left to play. It tried to hold for the last shot, hoping to isolate senior point guard Kaelee Keller and break down the defense.
Instead, a turnover gave the ball back to South Side with 35 seconds left.
The Archers (18-4) mimicked the JCHS strategy, holding the ball as the clock ticked away. In the 10 seconds, point guard Brittany Johnson went on the attack, and then saw Ashley Stalling streaking toward the basket from the left corner.
Stalling took a perfect bounce pass from Johnson only to miss a wide-open lay-up with about three seconds to go. But, Stalling was able to grab the rebound and toss the ball back up.
It slipped through the net as the final tenths disappeared along with the Patriots' undefeated season.
"She kept after it," said South Side coach Andy Rang of Stalling, a junior. "She kept fighting and she made a great shot."
Stalling finished with 10 points, but the game-winning shot accounted for her only points of the second half.
Sydney Weinert, who will play college ball at IPFW, led the Archers with 15 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Johnson added 11 points and three assists.
"It just seems like in the semifinal every year we come up big," said Rang, whose team beat Jay County by 30 in the same round last season. "And the girls did that again tonight.
"They executed really well down the stretch. They hit some really big shots.
"They ran what we wanted to at the end perfectly."
The Patriots led by as many as 10 in the first half, but saw their lead dwindle as South Side picked up the full-court pressure after the intermission. They failed to score for the first 3:45 of the third quarter, turning the ball over eight times in the period.
Weinert's three-point play put the Archers up 34-31 with 3:15 to play in the third quarter, but Jay County regrouped. It pushed back ahead by eight points with a 14-0 run that included 10 points from Lindsey Wellman.
In a game in which both teams struggled from the foul line - the Patriots were 9-of-20 and South Side 10-of-24 - JCHS missed six free throws in the final six minutes. The Archers forged the tie at 49 on a 3-pointer by Nia Banks, setting up Stalling's late heroics.
South Side's pressure forced 13 second-half turnovers as Jay County gave the ball away 21 times in the game.
"We haven't pressed as much as we did last year," said Rang. "I think it might have caught them by surprise."
The Patriots got monster efforts from junior's Wellman and Speed in the defeat.
Wellman poured in a game-high 19 points, which included hitting both of her 3-point attempts. She also shared game highs with three rebounds and two blocks.
Speed, who stands 5-foot-7, had the unenviable task of guarding the 6-foot-2 Weinert most of the evening. Even so, she scored 15 points and racked up 14 rebounds.
However, no other JCHS player scored more than four points in the defeat.
"There's a lot of different things that played into tonight," said Comer. "It just unfortunate that our first loss had to come in the sectional."
The Patriots were state-ranked for most of the 2008-09 campaign, the first undefeated regular season in school history.
They fell two wins short of tying the single-season team record for victories.
"It's the best season in the history of Jay County girls basketball," added Comer. "It's hard to realize tonight what kind of season they had. But this is a very special team."
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