Jay tops Heritage

MONROEVILLE — The Patriots had a second sluggish start.
Fortunately, neither has resulted in a loss.
Jay County High School’s girls basketball team overcame six turnovers in the first quarter Saturday to beat the host Heritage Patriots 53-37.
“We have to become a mentally tougher team,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team was able to clean up the turnovers with only eight in the final three periods. “The mental thing is what I’m most disappointed in. We can correct the other things.”
Despite the lack of concentration handling the basketball, Jay County (2-0, 1-0 Allen County Athletic Conference) never trailed. It scored the first bucket of the game — center Ava Kunkler pushed the opening tip in to Hanna Ault, who then passed to a streaking Abby Wendel for an uncontested layup. Nearly a minute later, Heritage (1-4, 0-1 ACAC) tied the score on a Rozlynn Everhart bucket.
The closest the host Patriots got the remainder of the game was after scoring four straight points to trail 11-10 with less than a minute to play in the opening quarter.
A string of baskets by JCHS freshman Shelby Caldwell, junior Taylor Homan and Wendel gave Jay County a 17-12 lead nearly two minutes into the second quarter.
Homan led all players with 13 points. Lyla Muhlenkamp and Wendel each added eight and Caldwell chipped in with six.
The visiting Patriots pushed their lead to eight points at the half, 25-17, after Ault assisted on a Kyndal Miller bucket. Jay County had a chance to extend the lead before intermission, but could not get a shot off as time expired.
Comer, who is two games into his second stint coaching Jay County, said the Patriots did not practice well the day before, and it carried over into Saturday’s contest.
“We’ve got to get tougher mentally,” he said.
Homan, Caldwell and Ault combined to score the first six points of the third quarter to complete a 10-0 run that started midway through the second.
Heritage’s Jessica Franke — she led the team with 11 points — hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to cut the deficit to 11.
Ault, who tallied four assists, notched a helper on a layup by Kunkler, and Briana Muhlenkamp hit Lyla Muhlenkamp in the left corner as Jay County pushed its advantage to 16 points.
Jay County assisted on 14 of its 22 field goals.
Heritage got within 13 with five minutes left to play, but seven consecutive points gave Jay County a 49-29 advantage, it’s biggest lead of the game.
A dozen Jay County players saw action, with all but three of them tallying points. After being held scoreless in a 49-42 victory Thursday against Monroe Central, Kunkler had five points, and mentioned after the game she was glad to finally put the ball through the hoop.
Britlyn Dues and Ault both notched four points, Audrey Shreve tallied three and Miller had two.
“We have a lot of depth, so if someone is having an off night we have people we can go to,” said Comer, whose team plays Union City at 6 p.m. Tuesday in its home opener before hitting the road for four consecutive games. “We need to find consistency. We need to get these girls in roles as soon as possible so they are more comfortable knowing that they are going to be doing.”
Comer added that, although Jay County forced Heritage into turning the ball over 22 times, his squad took a step back defensively.
“We didn’t get as many transition points as I thought we could in tonight’s game,” he said. “ As a matter of fact in the second half we went back to our 1-2-2 and trying to get stops.”

Junior varsity
While Jay County’s offense exploded in the first half, and its defense suffocated the Heritage offense for four quarters in a 49-12 victory.
The visiting Patriots (2-0, 1-0 ACAC) scored 19 points in the first quarter while only allowing two points to the home team. Heritage had its most points with seven in the second quarter, but Jay County was able to push its advantage to 28-9 entering intermission.
Heritage had one and two points in the third and fourth quarters respectively.
Klarisa Hemmelgarn led Jay County with 11 points, nine of which came in the first half. Sam Twigg and Kendra Muhlenkamp had nine points apiece, while Gwen Omstead and Shreve both chipped in with four. All but one JCHS player scored at least two points.