Turnovers costly in loss

ALEXANDRIA — The Patriots practice the play all the time.
Down a few points with most — if not all — of the court to go with seconds remaining on the clock.
With 1.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and trailing 39-37 Tuesday, Jay County High School boys basketball coach Craig Teagle called a time out to set up the play.
But like most of the previous 31 minutes, 58.9 seconds, the final 1.1 did not go Jay County’s way.
Senior Nick Clemens’ inbound pass from just beyond center court sailed over the top of an outstretched Adam Dirksen near the right corner and went out of bounds. That play, and a pair of free throws at the other end resulted in a 41-37 Jay County loss to the Alexandria Tigers.
“First of all we need to post it up to the rim,” said Teagle, whose team fell to 16-5 on the season. “We want to throw that thing right up to the rim so we can just catch it and put it in. We floated it way too far in the corner and threw it too hard.”
The late-game mishap was just one of many for Jay County, which turned the ball over a season-high 29 times. Typically a fundamental basketball team on offense, the Patriots struggled to keep the ball in their hands. Ill-advised, soft passes plagued the visitors, who turned the ball over on nearly every other possession.
“We were dysfunctional as a team,” Teagle said. “We tried to force things — dribble in traffic, we took a couple bad shots. We just didn’t play like the team we’ve been most of the year. We did not play very smart.
“I don’t think our effort was terrible, I just thought they were more scrappy than us.”
And the poor performance came three days after Jay County dominated sectional rival Wayne, beating the Generals 35-17.
Trailing 24-22 to start the fourth quarter on Tuesday, the Patriots turned the ball over on four of its first six possessions, including back-to-back charges to start the period. Meanwhile, Alexandria (11-9) took its biggest lead of the game, 36-25, thanks to three consecutive 3-pointers.
Jay County came surging back, scoring six straight points. Junior Kyler Carvel split a pair of free throws, and then assisted on a bucket by Justin Dirksen.
Carvel had a team- and career-high 10 points to go with his four rebounds and a block.
Carvel and Dirksen both added buckets with less than two minutes to play, cutting the deficit to 37-35, and Houck’s basket with 13 seconds remaining kept the Alexandria lead at two.
After being fouled with 1.7 seconds remaining, Kelly had a chance ot put the game out of reach for the Patriots.
The senior missed a pair of free throws and JCHS junior Bowen Runyon grabbed the offensive rebound, which led to the Teagle timeout with 1.1 left.
But in the end, it was the turnovers that cost the Patriots the game and led to the seventh-straight victory for Alexandria.
“If you turn the ball over half the time you have it … All you have to do is take care of it and you get a layup,” Teagle said. “I’m disappointed. That should be like taking candy from a baby.
“For whatever reason tonight we didn’t show any poise or any toughness and we got embarrassed.
“Truth is, we got lucky to battle back. We played so poorly; we shouldn’t have been in that game. Fundamentally we were just so unsound.”

Junior varsity
Jay County had to come from behind in each of its last three games.
Such was not the case against Alexandria.
The Patriots led from the start and cruised to a 62-49 victory against the Tigers. It was the their 11th win in the last 12 games.
Jay County (13-5) led 15-6 after the first quarter and pushed the advantage to 30-19 at halftime and stayed ahead by double figures throughout the second half.
Justin Crouch led all players with 16 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Jason Schlosser scored 12 after the break to finish with 15.
Spencer Calvert chipped in with 10 points, and Cole Stigleman added eight.
Matt Klenke totaled 12 points to lead the Tigers.