Jay roughs up Raiders

PONETO — Bigger. Stronger. Faster.
No matter how it was viewed, the Patriots were the better team.
The Raiders’ inability to score made matters worse.
Jay County High School’s basketball team scored 25 consecutive points during a run that spanned the intermission and Southern Wells had a difficult time making shots Saturday as the Patriots pummeled the Raiders for a 58-16 victory.
“We had the height, we had the athleticism, we had the best players,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg. “(The Raiders) never gave up, they kept fighting, but we did a great job of keeping them in check.”
Southern Well’s Keaton Coleman entered Saturday’s game averaging more than 17 points per game, and was held to just three.
“The open of the second half encapsulated the entire game,” said SWHS coach Ben Burman. “We got our best shooter (Coleman) three wide open 3-pointers, he missed them in and out, and we got three layups and we missed them.”
Burman still wasn’t discouraged.
“I told our kids … as crazy as it sounds, scoring 16 points I thought we played well offensively,” he said. “We got the shots we wanted we just couldn’t finish.
“We’re not going to see anything like what Jay County is for the rest of the year. We got better tonight regardless of what the scoreboard was.”
But it’s a shooting performance the Raiders (3-13, 0-4 ACAC) would hope to forget. They were 3-of-23 (10.7 percent) in the first half and finished 8-for-40 (20 percent) for the game.
Jay County (10-4, 3-0 ACAC), meanwhile, was 71 percent (15-for-21) through the first 16 minutes and 6-of-12 in the third quarter before giving way to its reserves.
Trailing 19-3 after the first quarter, Southern Wells scored on its first two possessions of the second. Coleman made his only basket of the night when he drained a 3-pointer from the right wing, and after a Patriot turnover Jake Horton put back an offensive rebound to make it 19-8 in favor of Jay County.
That’s when the Patriots went on their run and things went awry for the Raiders.
Jay County closed the half by scoring 17 consecutive points that included a pair of monstrous dunks by Dirksen. Justin Crouch had a layup attempt roll off the front of the rim and Dirksen trailed the play for the putback flush for a 34-8 Patriot lead.
His next dunk was on a designed play, with him standing near the right wing and classmate Kyler Carvel on the left wing with the basketball.
Dirksen cut to the basket, Jason Schlosser provided Dirksen with a back-screen of a Southern Wells defender and Carvel launched an alley-oop to the 6-foot, 8-inch Dirksen that he threw down to the approval of nearly everyone in the Raiderdome.
“Dirksen played so much above the rim,” Krieg said. He had 14 points and shared the game-high of nine rebounds with Jay Houck. “Tonight seemed like one of those games he was playing way above the rim. Every board he got defensively he snatched above the rim.
“(Carvel) gave him, not a great pass, but it seems like (Dirksen) just went up and snatched that thing and threw it down with authority.”
Jay County led 38-8 at the half, and out of the break Dirksen and Houck — he led all players with 16 points — combined for the first seven points of the second half. Dirksen had a pair of baskets in the paint and Houck nailed the second of his two 3-pointers. It completed the 25-0 run for the Patriots during which the Raiders missed 21 straight shots.

Junior varsity
A 14-point second quarter helped Jay County pull away from Southern Wells in a 40-22 win.
The Patriots (7-3, 4-0 ACAC) were ahead 11-5 after the first quarter before pushing the advantage to 25-9 at half. They led 36-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
Michael Schlechty led all players with a dozen points, and his twin brother Ryan followed with seven points. Garrett Rodgers and Connor Davis were close behind with six and five points respectively.
Cameron Lightle led Southern Wells with nine points.

Freshman
Stellar defense in the second quarter and a strong third quarter offensively gave Jay County a 43-20 thrashing of Southern Wells.
Jay County (9-3) led 6-4 after the opening quarter and allowed just two points in the second while taking a 15-6 advantage into halftime. The Patriots came out firing in the third with a 16-point quarter, and added a dozen more in the final period.
Parker Grimes had a game-high 10 points and Wyatt Geesaman tallied eight. Noah Harris totaled six points.
Gage Allen paced the Raiders with nine points.