Ever improving

Coach Sherri McIntire was blunt with her team about its Saturday performance. She liked the defensive effort, but wasn’t satisfied with the offensive performance.

Three days later, it took a step toward fixing those problems.

The Jay County High School girls basketball team used its defense to create offense and crashed the offensive glass often in its 64-13 win over the Muncie Central Bearcats on Tuesday night.

“I was very pleased with how we came out ready to play,” McIntire said. “Then we got a lead and I felt like our level of play stayed where it needed to.

“Sometimes when you get a big lead, it can get sloppy and I thought we did a really good job of playing at our level.”

One point of emphasis for the Patriots (7-2) during the game was to improve their shooting near the basket. In the win against Fort Recovery on Saturday, Jay County was 19-of-55 from the field, shooting 34.5%. On Tuesday, it increased that to 27-of-66 for 40.9% from the field.

The three Patriots who had the highest shot volume all increased their shooting percentage. Sophie Saxman (57.1%) had the largest increase of 11.6 percentage points. Molly Muhlenkamp (44.4%) and Hallie Schwieterman (33.3%) both improved as well, with 8-percentage-point and 3.9-percentage-point increases, respectively.

Breanna Dirksen also had a big offensive game. While her shooting percentage didn’t go up — she shot 100% from the floor going 2-for-2 against Fort Recovery — she scored a quiet 12 points on 6-for-9 shooting.

On top of the improved shooting and finishing, when Jay County did miss shots, it crashed the offensive glass hard. It gave itself 24 second chances.

“I felt like we finished better but one of this groups’ strengths is that, while we’re not always going to finish around the basket, they’re gonna get their offensive rebounds,” McIntire said. “That’s the main thing. We didn’t dwell on missing a shot, and turned it into a positive thing.”

Muhlenkamp led the effort on the offensive glass, pulling down eight boards. Saxman, Bella Denton and Natalie Carreno all had three, Schweierman, Meredith Dirksen and Raylah Newton grabbed two each and Breanna Dirksen pulled down one.

Jay County had its first player record a double-double this season, as Muhlenkamp finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Saxman was close to one as well with 10 points and a team-high eight steals.

“I knew we needed to do the little things tonight, so we needed to get in and rebound,” Muhlenkamp said. “Those things are going to matter in important games.”

The Patriots’ defense didn’t suffer as a result of the offensive focus. Jay County’s half-court trapping zone turned over Muncie Central (1-7) 40 times, 16 of which came in the first quarter.

Jay County High School's Breanna Dirksen swipes away the ball from Muncie Central's Taj Isom during the 54-13 win by Jay County. The Patriots forced 40 turnovers in the contest. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

“I think it was really just a mental thing,” MCHS coach Jayla Scaife said of the offensive struggles. “Coming into our warmup there was no energy — we’re an energetic team. Everything comes from energy for us. So I think that is really what messed us up.”

The Bearcats struggled to even get shots off. Their first shot of the game came at the 4:45 minute mark in the first period. Muncie Central finished the half 2-for-11, with both shots being 3-pointers from Katherine White, who despite not scoring again finished as its leading scorer.

The defensive effort showed up on the scoreboard in other ways as well. Of Jay County’s 64 points, exactly half of them came in transition.

“That’s what this team needs to do,” McIntire said. “If we have to set up our half court offense, we're not near as strong as if we can get them to turn the ball over and we can go down and try to score in transition. That's our strength.”

Jay County’s next game will be an Allen County Athletic Conference match up at Adams Central on Friday. The Patriots are 1-0 in conference play with a win over Woodlan and are hoping their five-game win streak will help them coming in.

“I’m just getting ready for our conference game on Friday,” McIntire said. “We need to have a good couple of practices here so we are ready to play at Adams Central. That’s always a tough place to play so we need to be ready.”