Effort showed glimpse of things to come

It was the most complete game they had played so far.

And it’s just the type of game they need moving forward.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team no longer has a pure scoring threat like it did in the past with Jay Houck and Jason Schlosser.

Nor do the Patriots have Trey Teagle, Kegan Comer, Scott Schwieterman or Brock McFarland.

But what they do have is a roster of a dozen players with the type of cohesiveness that can make little worry of not having a true scorer.

“It’s awesome,” said senior Cole Stigleman, who had a game-high 14 points and shared the team lead of five assists in a 49-29 win over Yorktown on Tuesday. “We have a lot of team chemistry I think and we like to give the ball to each other.”

There hasn’t been a single game this season more indicative of how well the Patriots can share the ball than Tuesday’s road win at Yorktown.

Jay County had 22 made field goals that night, and recorded assists on 19 of them.

“I think having that is really helpful,” Stigleman added. “Just to get the ball to the open person is always good.”

Whether it was Ryan Schlechty (five assists) feeding twin brother Michael as he cut to the hoop, or Stigleman finding Parker Grimes on a back-door cut, the Tigers had little match for Jay County distributing the basketball.

For most of the 2016-17 season, opposing defenses figured out a way to slow down Jay County.

Its offense ran through Houck and Schlosser. Stop them, the chances of winning were high.

But against a team like this year’s Patriots, who force their opponents to shut down five guys instead of one or two, earning a victory might come much harder.

“We are a team that shares the basketball,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg. “That proves we’re not playing one-on-one, one-on-two. We are moving the ball and getting the ball to people at the right positions.”

At the other end of the court Tuesday, Jay County’s defense was the best it had played through the first five games of the season. It limited the Tigers to just 31 percent shooting from the field, including a 1-for-18 effort (5.6 percent) from long range. The Patriots also dominated the glass, 24-11, and didn’t allow the Tigers many second-chance opportunities following their frequent misses.

Additionally, Jay County held Yorktown to just one point in the third quarter and kept the Tigers without a field goal for more than nine minutes.

“In the third quarter we came out just on the basketball,” Krieg said. “Help side was there, we did a good job of covering up everything for them. I am really proud of our kids for that. They knew what they had to do.”

Yorktown’s Bobby Smith (13.6 points per game) and Matt Grimes (12.4 PPG) were limited to just 13 total points. Grimes led the Tigers with 10 points, and Smith exited the game in the fourth quarter after tweaking his ankle.

Jay County’s defense simply made things too difficult for Yorktown. Nearly every shot they took was contested and didn’t allow the top two players to get in any sort of rhythm.

They combined to shoot 5-of-19 from the field.

“We did what we had to do to take them out of the game,” Krieg said. “Let someone else beat us, not those two kids.

“I felt like we did an excellent job. When they were open we were there.”

Stigleman realized his team’s effort, too.

“I thought tonight we played really good on defense,” he said. “It was a team effort. Lots of guys stepped up. They missed a lot of shots but I felt like we contested a lot of them and made it tough for them.”

Tuesday’s game was the first all-around solid game the Patriots have had this young season.

If Jay County wants to compete for another Allen County Athletic Conference title — the tournament draw is Monday afternoon — and to clinch its 17th-straight winning year, the glimpse the Patriots showed earlier this week needs to become a habit, not an anomaly.