Jay County falls in final

FORT WAYNE — Jay County’s girls basketball team hung with the No. 4 team in the state for a quarter Monday.
But Karissa McLaughlin and the Spartans went on a roll.
With the score tied at 10 with 2:31 remaining in the first quarter, host Homestead scored 26 straight points en route to a 76-38 thumping of the Patriots in the Class 4A Sectional 6 tournament championship game.
“For eight minutes of basketball we did what we had to do with one of the best teams in the state of Indiana,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team trailed 15-10 after the first quarter. “They’re just so explosive. They’re quick. They’re athletic.
“It’s not just one person that can shoot. They have a bunch that can shoot it.”
Monday, however, was all about McLaughlin.
The sophomore, who needed 13 points to eclipse the 1,000 point plateau in her short career, finished with a game-high 31 points — 26 of which came in the first half. Seventeen of those were during the 26-0 run.
“Karissa had the hot hand in the first half, there’s no doubt about that,” said Homestead coach Rod Parker, whose 23-2 Spartan squad will take on Snider at noon Saturday in the Kokomo regional. “The kids did their roles. They set screens, they moved the ball and got it to our open shooters.
“Fortunately, Karissa knocked down a lot of big shots for us in the first half to give us a little momentum. She played a real nice game.”
McLaughlin had eight of the first 10 points for the Spartans. After Grace German sunk a pair of free throws to put Homestead up 12-10 in the final minute, McLaughlin got into her groove.
She hit back-to-back 3-pointers from the left corner — one at the end of the first quarter and one to begin the second — and then followed it up with a pair of free throws to complete a personal eight-point run. She then assisted on a bucket by German before hitting another triple from the top of the key on a dish from Josie Fisher.
She wasn’t quite done yet.
A trey by Savannah Buck put Homestead up 30-10, and two more McLaughlin 3-pointers made it 36-10 with 3:18 remaining in the half. The spurt by the Spartans was aided by seven turnovers by Jay County (20-6), which had 20 giveaways in the game.

“When you turn the ball over against teams like this, they make you pay,” Krieg said. “And man, did they make us pay in the second quarter.”
Jay County senior Catherine Dunn stopped the run with a 3-pointer of her own from the top of the key, ending a scoreless stretch of more than eight minutes.
“What we did well in the first quarter is we communicated,” Krieg said. “We talked and that’s huge. When you’re on defense you have to communicate and help each other out.
“In the second quarter we stopped talking on defense. We didn’t get to the shooters and we didn’t switch like we were supposed to. The bottom fell out and it went downhill from there.”
The struggles continued in the second half for the Patriots on both sides of the ball. They were 2-of-8 shooting in the third quarter and had four turnovers in their first six possessions. They were outscored 20-6 in the frame, including another stretch of 11 consecutive points by Homestead. The Spartans led 62-21 heading into the final period.
Jay County, which was 5-of-16 in the opening half, made five of its 18 attempts after intermission. Homestead, meanwhile, connected on a dozen shots in each half and shot 51 percent from the field.
“We have to be able to dictate the game at our pace,” Krieg said. “When you’re rushing through, turning the ball over right away or forcing shots right away just to get a shot off, you’re going to find yourself in a big hole.”