Jay County girls blast South Side

The Patriots cruised to another victory.
It wasn’t easy, though.
Jay County High School’s girls basketball team fought through fouls and constant defensive pressure against the Fort Wayne South Side Archers on Tuesday in a 58-38 win.
“We knew going in that it was going to be a 32-minute game,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team moves to 8-0 on the season and has beaten the Archers for the third consecutive game. “I never felt comfortable until the last minute and a half, two minutes.
“I didn’t feel like it was secure. That is because of how explosive they can be. If they get you to turn it over they can score quick. I was really happy with the way we kept our composure.”
South Side assistant David Goodwell, who was filling in for his wife Juanita, said it was a hard-fought game despite the lopsided score.
“It really was,” Goodwell said. The Archers fell to 2-3 on the season. “I thought we missed some shots earlier. We got where we wanted to get, the sweet spot in the lane (but) shots just didn’t fall for us.
“Jay County did a good job of giving us one shot and done.”
South Side shot just 23 percent from the field in the first half while the Patriots were north of 60 percent. Many of the Archers’ shots were rushed, or were after players had driven the lane and launched the ball with a little too much power. And, as Goodwell said, the Patriots were able to grab the defensive rebounds to end possessions.
After leading at halftime 33-18, a 9-0 run in the third quarter helped the Patriots push the advantage to 24 points. Their 44-20 lead was the biggest of the game.
Still, the Archers kept pressuring, staying in their full- or three-quarter court press. It led to Patriot turnovers that resulted in easy buckets at the other end, including a 3-pointer from Joey Stanford and a fast break bucket by Nadea Gonzalez. Stanford made back-to-back shots later in the fourth quarter that cut the Patriots’ lead to 16 — 52-36. She led South Side with 18 points, 13 of which were in the second half.
“With a team that plays like that you’re going to have some times with some ups and downs,” said Comer, who has now won 30 consecutive regular-season games with the Patriots. “I thought we made some poor decisions in the second half. We got a little tired mentally and made some decisions we weren’t making in the first half to get the lead.
“I thought whenever they made a good run that we showed great composure by coming down and getting a big basket or an offensive rebound.”
Sophomore Hanna Ault had two of those offensive rebounds on one possession late in the game. She grabbed the board off a miss from a teammate, put up a shot that was off the mark and hauled in her own rebound. Her second shot didn’t miss.
She finished with 14 points, second on the team only to senior Abby Wendel’s game- and career-high 24 points. Senior Ava Kunkler added 11 to give the Patriots three players in double figures.
“I was really pleased,” Comer said. “Our goal is to have three girls in double figures. I thought Hanna and Ava both, that was their best games of the young season and in the biggest game so far. That made it even more impressive.”
Wendel, who has led the Patriots in scoring all but one game this season, eclipsed 20 points for the second time. She said the ability of her teammates to spread the ball makes them hard to defend.
“Having three in double figures definitely is beneficial to us,” said Wendel, who made all 11 of her free throws while the rest of the squad combined to shoot 4-of-14 from the line. “Gives them more people that they have to guard.”

Junior varsity
Jay County kept South Side off the scoreboard for the first seven minutes and limited it to just three points in each of the final three quarters in a 48-9 victory.
The Patriots (8-0) led 12-0 after the opening quarter and extended the advantage to 20-3 at halftime. A 17-point effort in the third period put the game even more out of reach for South Side.
Sam Twigg and Hannah Phillips led the Patriots with eight and seven points respectively. Briana Muhlenkamp and Gwen Omstead each added six points, and Kailee Denney added five. Jay County had 11 players score.