Patriots beat Bears in opener

PARKER CITY — Abby Wendel admitted she and her teammates were nervous.
Kirk Comer said the Patriots weren’t consistent enough.
Even though the Jay County High School girls basketball team beat Monroe Central 49-42 Thursday night for its sixth straight against the Golden Bears, the Patriots have a long list of things they need to work on the rest of the season.
One, for instance, is shooting better. Jay County was 34 percent from the field.
Another is hitting a higher percentage of free throws. The Patriots were 18-of-29 from the stripe, including making five of nine attempts in the fourth quarter and half of their 12 freebies in the second half.
“Right now we’re a team that is inconsistent, which is typical for a team that has a new coach,” said Comer, who began his second stint with Jay County against his former team. Comer led the Golden Bears to a sectional championship last season. “A lot of these things are new to them. They are learning.
“For a while you’re going to see some inconsistency out of us. Hopefully each game we can get a little bit better.”
Jay County (1-0) went nearly a full four minutes without making its first field goal of the game when Taylor Homan hit a long jumper near the top of the key. The first bucket of the season from Homan — she finished with nine points and a pair of rebounds — cut into the 7-3 lead for Monroe Central (0-1), which then scored six consecutive points for a 13-5 advantage.
But JCHS freshman Shelby Caldwell kicked off an 11-0 run for the Patriots when she put back an offensive rebound for her first career points. She then split a pair of free throws and Wendel scored four consecutive points in the final minute of the opening quarter to get Jay County within one, 13-12.
Wendel finished with a game-high 21 points and Caldwell tallied eight in her high school debut.
“She is a great kid and had an outstanding game tonight,” Comer said of Wendel, who also added seven rebounds and three assists. “She is an outstanding leader. When the game is on the line we are going to put the ball in her hands.”
The senior said she tried to get the ball to her teammates more but got open looks and took them.
Caldwell grabbed three key defensive rebounds in the second quarter, helping the Patriots get ahead by as many as six points, 21-15, and lead 22-18 at half.
“Every game she is going to continue to gain experience,” Comer said. “I thought she had a really good game tonight and got some good experience that she needed. She is going to continue to get better and help us become a better team.”
Jay County’s shooting got better as the game went on. It took 11 shots in each of the first two quarters, making three and two field goals respectively. The Patriots were 5-of-12 in the third and 4-of-7 in the fourth.
While Jay County’s performance from the field improved, such was not the case from the charity stripe.
“I was a little surprised down the stretch that we didn’t hit more than we hit,” Comer said. The Patriots were 12-of-17 in the first half. “We have to be able to shoot better than 50 percent down the stretch.”
Monroe Central trailed 45-38 — its biggest deficit of the contest — midway through the fourth quarter until a pair of free throws and a baseline drive from Mikaela McGrath put the Golden Bears within one possession.
“She did a great job tonight,” said MCHS coach Leigh Ann Barga, who was making her coaching debut. McGrath led the Bears with 15 points, and her younger sister Abigail added a dozen. “I wish (Mikaela) would have stayed out of foul trouble. It might have made a difference.”
Comer felt the final score was a little bit closer than he would have liked and shouldered the blame for the way the defense performed.
“It’s not very good right now. That’s my fault,” he said. “There (are) a lot of rules they have to learn in order to become a good defensive team. If one person is out of position the defense won’t work.”
Comer, whose team jumps into Allen County Athletic Conference play on Saturday with a game at Heritage, noted that more reps in practice and experience in games would help the Patriots improve on defense.
“It’s probably going to be around Christmas time before defensively we are where I want them,” he said.

Junior varsity
Jay County held Monroe Central to five points or fewer in each quarter in a 37-15 victory.
The Patriots (1-0) scored 10 points in each of the first two frames for a 20-7 halftime lead. The visitors extended the advantage to 26-11 heading into the fourth quarter, and they had their best offensive showing in the final seven minutes with an 11-point effort.
Freshman Kendra Muhlenkamp paced the Patriot offense with 10 points, including back-to-back fast-break buckets off steals in the fourth quarter.
Junior Audrey Shreve followed with seven points, and Klarisa Hemmelgarn added six points. Hannah Phillips and Kendal Garringer had four points apiece.