10 spot

When the Patriots were last on the court, they used a 16-0 run to erase an early deficit on the way to a blowout of New Castle.

Playing host to another Hoosier Heritage Conference squad, they never gave the visitors a chance to think about getting a lead.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team opened with 10 consecutive points Tuesday against the Yorktown Tigers, building a massive first-quarter lead and rolling to a 59-30 victory.

“We got off to a good start,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, whose team had not played since its 75-36 blowout win over New Castle on Dec. 16. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to be with having some time off. But I thought we did a good job getting off to a good start. I thought we had a good first half.”

It was the seventh straight victory for the Patriots, who finished 11th in this week’s Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association Class 3A poll voting. Its only losses this season have come against Class 4A No. 7 North Central on Nov. 13 and Class 2A No. 1 Winchester on Nov. 20.

Tuesday night, the Patriots (10-2) established themselves quickly with Renna Schwieterman hitting the opening hoop and Gabi Bilbrey adding a put-back bucket. Schwieterman, who is closing in on becoming the program’s fourth 1,000-point scorer, followed with back-to-back 3-pointers for a 10-0 lead just 3:18 into the game.

An 11-0 run later in the period — Schwieterman had three assists during that run while Madison Dirksen and Bilbrey scored four points apiece and Izzy Rodgers added a 3-pointer — pushed the JCHS advantage to 24-4.

“They’re a really good team,” said Yorktown coach Leigh Ann Barga, whose Tigers slipped to 3-10. “We don’t have the size to match up, and they’re great shooters. They’re just a good, good ball team. The inside-out game, they’ve got both.”

The Patriots pushed to a 37-14 advantage at halftime before Yorktown outscored them 13-8 in the third quarter.

But Jay County was never seriously threatened as it opened the fourth period on a 12-1 run and then clearing its bench for the final three minutes.

Dirksen, a senior, shot 8-of-13 to lead the home team with 18 points.

Schwiterman’s 15 points brought her to 988 for her career, putting her in position to hit the 1,000-point mark at home Thursday against South Adams. The only players in JCHS girls basketball history to reach that milestone are Shannon Freeman (1,458), Carissa Phillips (1,073) and 2019 graduate Shelby Caldwell (1,071). (Schwieterman is on pace to break Freeman’s all-time JCHS scoring record.)

Bilbrey added 10 points to give the Patriots three players in double figures while also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds to lead them to a 28-16 advantage on the glass.

Jay County had 19 assists on 26 made baskets, with Schwieterman and Rodgers totaling seven and six, respectively.

“We’ve been sharing the ball really well,” said Comer, whose team also got nine points from sophomore Sophie Saxman. “Renna is the key to that because she’s got the ball in her hands most of the time. She’s making good decisions.

“Everybody is going to be out to get her, but we’ve got a lot of other weapons who can score the ball and she’s doing a good job of finding those people.”

Junior varsity

Jay County’s six-point lead heading into the fourth quarter slipped away, but the home team was able to squeak out a 38-36 victory over the Tigers in overtime.

The extra session went almost two minutes without a point before Danielle May hit a 3-pointer to give the Patriots the lead for good.

A Daisy Muhlenkamp free-throw accounted for their only other points in overtime, but Yorktown struggled to score as well and a running shot from Kayleigh Agugliaro from the right side came up short at the buzzer.

Molly Muhlenkamp’s 11 points paced JCHS in the victory. Bella Denton added nine points, including a hoop at the 10-second mark of regulation that pushed JCHS up by one before Yorktown’s Shanese Williams split a pair of free throws to send the game into overtime. Williams’ nine points were the team-high for the Tigers. Gracie Herron added eight.