Neutralizing the Bruins

The Patriots have a scripted play they like to run off of the tip to get an easy bucket for Breanna Dirksen in the opening seconds.

Bella Denton has done a strong job at winning the opening tip, but didn’t beat out Sydnee Morris.

Losing the tip and the chance to run their opening play didn’t phase the Patriots, as they got off to a strong start against the Bruins.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team started its game on Tuesday on an 11-0 run to jump ahead of the Class 2A No. 9 Blackford Bruins to take them down 47-32.

“I thought we got off to a really good start,” JCHS coach Sherri McItnire said. “We got into some early foul trouble and couldn’t be as aggressive on defense. We have to be aggressive on defense because that’s how we get a lot of our offense out of our defense.”

That’s exactly how Jay County (9-2) got off to its hot start. After a pair of empty possessions, Hallie Schwieterman swiped away the ball near the volleyball line and took it to the rim herself. The Patriots continued to turn over Blackford (8-2), either directly resulting in points or putting the Bruins on their heels to create mismatches and catch them off guard.

During the 11-0 run, the Patriots forced seven turnovers and out-worked Blackford on the glass, pulling down five offensive rebounds to two defensive boards for Blackford.

“We do not do a good job of blocking out, we tend to live with our athleticism,” Blackford coach Dallas Duggan said. “Well, they matched our athleticism and probably exceeded our athleticism and therein lies the problem.”

Blackford finally cracked the scoreboard with 2 minutes, 19 seconds left in the quarter on a three from Chloe Wicker assisted by Savanna Morris.

Jay County scored one final time in the period, when Sophie Saxman caught the ball in the paint, nearly lost it as three Bruins surrounded her, but took her time to finish in traffic and maintain a 10-point lead.

Both Saxman and Molly Muhlenkamp picked up a pair of fouls in the first quarter, forcing the forwards to sit out a bulk of the second. Their absence limited what Jay County could do defensively, as Muhlenkamp often plays the top role in its 1-2-2 zone, funneling opposing guards into traps, while Saxman picks off passes the guards try to make to get out of the traps.

“We just can’t get in foul trouble,” McIntire said. “The people that we want to utilize in our half-court press were the ones in foul trouble. Our half-court press isn’t nearly as strong when we go to our bench.”

The Bruins offense started to pick up in the second quarter, as they didn’t have to deal with Muhlenkamp’s length or Saxman’s foresight. It was still a slow start, but an offensive rebound by Savanna Morris followed by a Wicker three made it a single-digit ball game with three minutes in the half.

Back-to-back threes by Danielle May pushed the lead back to 15 before Bralee VanSkyock closed the half with one of her own.

Jay County’s defense picked up again in the third quarter, but it started to turn the ball over more as well, slowing the game down as both teams combined for 12 points.

JCHS freshman Hallie Schwieterman fires up a jump shot late in the Patriots' 47-32 win over Blackford on Tuesday. Schwieterman scored 12 points in the game. (The Commerical Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Offense picked up in the fourth quarter as Jay County hit seven free throws and Blackford started to warm up from distance as VanSkyock nailed three 3-pointers. The Patriots once again won the quarter 17-16.

“We basically played them even in the second, third and fourth quarter,” Duggan said. “We just dug that early hole and couldn’t get out of it.”

The Patriots locked up Blackford’s two leading scorers, Wicker and Sydnee Morris.

Wicker — who averages 15 points per game and shoots 38% from three — was held to six points as she couldn’t find her range, shooting 2-for-13 beyond the arc.

The Patriots’ defense didn’t allow Sydnee Morris to get easy looks at the bucket at all, pressuring the Bruins’ guards to make entry passes difficult. The 13-point per game scorer only got two looks inside the arc, missing one and converting a three-point play on the other.

“It was huge,” McIntire said. “We knew (Wicker) was their 3-point shooter and (Sydnee Morris) was probably their best overall player.

“That was great for our defense to shut them down because those are things we’re going to need to do in the tournament.”

Saxman led Jay County with 15 points. She was efficient, shooting 5-for-7 from the field. When she wasn’t making shots, she was finding ways to get to the free-throw line, making four trips that resulted in 5-of-7 free throws.

“I just looked to make contact even though I got two charges called,” Saxman said. “We’ve been wanting to beat this team for a while. It’s been a long time coming.

“We haven’t played them in four years, so we were all just really focused tonight and ready to go.”

Junior varsity

Jay County fell to Blackford 35-25 in a three-quarter contest Tuesday.

The Patriots (4-6) got off to a hot start, as Meredith Dirksen hit two threes and Kady Allred put two in as well to build a 13-10 first-quarter lead.

As the game went on, the well ran dry for Jay County, as the Bruins outscored it 25-12 in the final two periods.

Raylah Newton was the top scorer with nine points for the Patriots.

Kaylor Hedge led Blackford with 13 points, including eight in the second period.