Four in a row

BERNE — The Patriots forced turnovers.

They made the extra pass.

They scored in transition and ran some effective half-court offense.

And their rebounding help put the game out of reach.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team continued to make strides Saturday as it won its fourth game in a row 65-36 over the host South Adams Starfires.

“I thought we came out really strong in the first quarter and the second,” said Patriot junior Alexis Sibray, who was one of four Patriots in double figures with 10 points. “I think our momentum is getting up there to where we have confidence.”

The Patriots won three of their first four games before dropping four in a row. They’ve won four in a row since, including overtime victories over Adams Central and New Castle, to get to 7-5 overall and 2-1 in the Allen County Athletic Conference.

“I’m very pleased with our defensive effort. I felt like we were able to get after them defensively and that was a big key,” said JCHS coach Sherry McIntire. “We got some offense out of our defense, and any time we can do that we’re a much better team.

“I felt like Hallie put a lot of ball pressure on the Lehman girl,” she added. “She wasn’t probably able to do some of the things that she typically does. Credit to Hallie Schwieterman, she definitely was hounding her and therefore they weren’t able to get into the flow of their offense.”

Jay County trailed just once — 2-0 — before it started turning over the Starfires. (They  gave the ball away nine times in the opening period.) The result was runs of 8-0 and 7-0 to build a double-digit lead.

Five of the Patriots’ first six baskets were assisted, including a long inbound pass from Hallie Schwieterman to Sibray for an easy two points. 

“To have four kids in double digits, that’s just sharing the basketball,” said McIntire. “I felt like we did a really nice job with trying to find that open person on the break.”

“That’s the reason why we say ‘everybody eats,’” said Sibray, “we have to incorporate everybody.”

Photo Gallery

Jay County girls basketball at South Adams (12/21/2024)

Another seven-point run in the second quarter had the visitors up by 20 before SAHS (3-10, 1-3 ACAC) scored the final five points of the half.

“Good spurts, bad spurts,” said South Adams coach Brett Freeman, whose team will host Jay County for the opening round of the ACAC tournament on Jan. 14. “It’s kind of the theme of our season so far, just with our youth. A lot of silly mistakes or not quite synched in together on defense … But when we were synched in on both ends we were getting some things, doing some things, made some nice runs at it but we would give up some runs at the same time.”

The lead was at 14 following an Ana Lehman 3-pointer for the Starfires before Jay County put the game away. Elizabeth Brunswick scored first on an assist from Schwieterman, and the rest of the points in a 10-0 run came on second chance opportunities. Schwieterman and Raylah Newton hit consecutive second-chance hoops, Brunswick put back a miss and then Schwieterman put back her own miss for a 46-22 advantage.

“The girls are getting more conscious of that, because we’re just not a naturally good rebounding team,” said McIntire, who got eight rebounds from Gabi Petro and seven from Amelia Heath. “Part of that is just having an idea of where that ball is going to fall off the rim. I feel like we’re getting better at reading that and just getting in there. You’ve got to go in there before you can get a rebound.”

Schwieterman scored 21 points to lead a group of four Patriots in double figures while also dishing out five assists, hauling in six rebounds and blocking three shots. Sibray, Petro and Brunswick added 10 points apiece.

Brunswick went out with a knee injury after hitting a layup with 6:46 left in the game. She returned to the bench on crutches and with her right knee heavily iced, but early indications were that the injury is not serious. She was set to be reevaluated Monday.

Laney Trausch, South Adams’ only junior, led the team with 16 points. Lehman hit three second-half 3-pointers en route to her 11 points.