Vikings vanquished (01/14/2009)

There were some challenges other than just the visiting Vikings Tuesday night.

For one, the Jay County High School girls basketball team was on the court after more than two weeks off, having played its last game Dec. 27.

And then in the second half, leading scorer Lindsey Wellman left the game for good with an injury.

But the Class 4A No. 6 Patriots were up to the challenge, defeating Huntington North 60-47.

"I thought the time off showed," said Comer, whose team beat Bloomington North and the host Stars in the Bedford North Lawrence tournament 17 days earlier. "Our timing was off on some things. We had a letdown when Lindsey went down, which is natural.

"When you've got a player out, everyone has got to step up their game. I thought it took us a little time to do that ...

"Kaelee Keller's three was huge. And Pazia (Speed) taking the ball to the hole and hitting the free throws down the stretch, that's what we expected."

After Wellman went to the bench, the Patriots managed just one hoop in the first six minutes. But Keller finally buried a 3-pointer late in the third quarter and then assisted on Mackenzie Loy's bucket to push JCHS to a 43-27 lead.

Speed scored eight of the next 10 Patriot points, and after Huntington North pulled to within nine points Keller scored six in a row to spark an 8-0 run that put the game away.

The guard duo combined to tally 37 points for Jay County, 20 from Speed and 17 by Keller. Speed grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and was 8-of-10 from the foul line, and Keller had three assists.

Brittany Mann had eight points and four rebounds, and Cara Garringer totaled four assists.

"Jay County just handles the ball really well," said Huntington North coach Kelly Jones. "They were pulling the ball out and making us come out on the perimeter and guard them and then doing a great job of exploiting some of our slower players ...

"Containing the penetration one-on-one ... has really been a challenge for us all season."

The initial prognosis for Wellman, who hurt her right shoulder/collar bone area in a collision with a Huntington North player, is good as x-rays were negative. Comer said this morning doctors believe the injury to be a bad bruise, but are still being cautious about the possibility of a hairline fracture.

The next game for the Patriots is at home Saturday against Connersville.

The Vikings hung with JCHS for the first seven minutes, but Wellman and Garringer hit buckets to close the first period and extend the lead to 16-0. An 11-3 run, starting with four points from Speed and ending with two hoops by Mann off of Keller assists, gave the Patriots a 36-19 advantage.

Huntington North (4-9), despite a 23-14 rebounding advantage in the second half, never got closer than nine points for the remainder of the game.

Taylor Foley led Huntington North with a double-double - 14 points and 12 rebounds. Liesl Davenport added 12 points and seven boards.

Junior varsity

Jay County outscored the Vikings by 10 in the second and third quarters to take a 29-18 victory.

The Patriots managed just two first-quarter points, but pushed to an 11-8 lead at halftime. They won the third-quarter 12-7 and held Huntington North scoreless for the final three minutes of the game.

Katie Butcher led JCHS with seven points, five of which came in the second half. Danielle Wellman hit a pair of second-quarter 3-pointers for her six points, and Maria Murphy also finished with six.

Cora Frame totaled seven points for the Vikings. Jericho Parrett followed with four points.

[[In-content Ad]]