ACAC CHAMPS

BERNE — Leo’s Jenna Beer bobbled the inbound pass from her teammate with 2.1 seconds left on the clock.
She gained control of the ball, and without a Jay County defender near her, the Leo senior launched a possible game-tying, three-quarter court shot as time expired.
Everyone in the StarDome anxiously watched as Beer’s desperation shot headed toward the hoop at the other end of the court.
If it goes in, Beer sends the game into overtime. She misses, and the Jay County High School girls basketball team wins the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament championship during the school’s first year in the conference.
Beer’s shot ricocheted off the backboard then hit the right side of the rim before falling to the floor, securing Jay County’s come-from-behind, 40-37 victory Saturday night over the Lions, the three-time defending conference tournament champions.
It continued a stretch during which Jay County has not played its best, but still found ways to win with the tournament title on the line.
“It feels amazing,” said JCHS senior Catherine Dunn, who received the Hilliard Gates award for the tournament’s most valuable player. “It feels great to come in here, be brand new, and win this.”
It was Dunn’s game-high 18 points that paced Jay County (13-3), which is off to its best start since the 2008 squad went undefeated through the regular season. Dunn was 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point line, a performance for which she gave most of the credit to her teammates.
“You can’t do it without teammates helping you and passing it to you,” said Dunn, who also made four of her five free-throw attempts.
But her supporting cast, led by Bre McIntire’s 10 points and Ava Kunkler’s eight, helped the Patriots overcome deficit of seven points, 24-17, in the second quarter and take a 33-31 lead heading into the final period.
Jay County went on a 10-3 run thanks to five points from McIntire, three from Kunkler and two from Abby Wendel. It outscored the Lions 10-6 in the frame, with the only points for Leo (10-6) coming from behind the 3-point line. The Lions attempted 15 shots from long distance in the game, converting only four of them.
A free throw from Morgan Sanderson and a bucket on a scramble play by Beer gave the Lions a 34-33 lead nearly 2:30 into the final period. Dunn put the Patriots back on top with a pair of free throws, and Kunkler sandwiched four points around a Leo free throw to extend the lead, 39-35, with less than a minute to play.
Kunkler, who struggled offensively in the tournament semifinal Thursday against Bluffton — the junior was 0-for-5 from the field and 2-for-8 from the free-throw line — was glad she was able to turn things around.
Her coach was just as pleased.
“I’m proud of her because she bounced back from having the worst game of her career to having a really good game against great size inside,” Krieg said of Kunkler, who was 3-of-7 from the field, 4-of-5 from the line and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
Leo’s size in the post — the 6-foot-1-inch frame of Daisha Green and Makala Wills, who is 5 feet, 10 inches — was important for the Lions. The combination of Green and Wills complemented the outside play of Beer and Heischman. Beer finished with 12 points, and Heischman had five.
“Our post players have come a long way,” Leo coach Carrie Shappell said of Wills and Green. “We’ve been working with them a lot (and) our guards have done a better job at getting them the ball which has been key.”
Green had six points and five rebounds, and Wills added four points for the Lions.
But down the stretch, it was the Patriots’ defense that ultimately created the most fits for the Lions.
Leo turned the ball over nine times in the second half, including a stretch in the third quarter during which it gave the ball away on six of eight possessions.
The Lions were limited to just six shots in the frame.
It wasn’t much better for the Lions in the fourth, as they made just two of their 10 attempts.
“They’re just solid fundamentally,” Shappell said of the Patriots. “I think that the defense that they play, because it’s such a solid defense, it’s hard to find any openings.”
Jay County defeated Leo 48-41 in their Dec. 9 meeting, and Krieg knew that with the conference championship on the line, it was going to be another close game.
“No doubt about it,” Krieg said. “I’m proud of our girls. They wanted it bad.”
“I hoped it wouldn’t be, but we knew it would probably be a close game,” added Kunkler.
It was.
And it gave the girls’ basketball team the school’s first ACAC tournament championship.
Pausing to collect her thoughts, Kunkler summed up Saturday’s win in just three simple words.
“We deserve this,” she said.