Finals opportunity

YORKTOWN — It’s official.

The Patriots have punched their ticket to the sectional championship.

What’s on the line?

A regional berth for the first time since 2006, tying the school record for wins and revenge on the Huskies.

After a rocky first half, the Jay County High School girls basketball team cruised past the Delta Eagles 53-35 in the IHSAA Class 3A sectional semifinal Friday night at Yorktown to make it back to the sectional final for the first time since 2021. It was their 20th consecutive victory.

Jay County, which finished 12th in the final poll of the season, will face off with the No. 1 Hamilton Heights Huskies, who rolled to a 53-23 victory over Frankton in Friday’s second semifinal, at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The Huskies have ended the Patriots’ season the past three seasons and beat them 53-41 in the second game of the season on Nov. 11.

“It was a tough start and it surprised me,” JCHS coach Sherri McIntire said. “I don’t know if we were kind of overlooking tonight and looking forward to tomorrow night which is easy to do, but it honestly surprised me with our leadership that we typically have.

“I told them, ‘Good teams find a way to win.’ We found a way to win and we’re playing for a sectional championship tomorrow night, so very happy with that.”

The Patriots (22-2) didn’t initially start slow, scoring nine unanswered points in the first 121 seconds of the game, prompting Delta coach Tyronda Benning to call a timeout.

The Eagles (11-12) didn’t score immediately out of the timeout, but broke the seal with 5 minutes, 25 seconds, on the clock when Jillian Barr got a put-back in transition. Over the next nine minutes, Delta outscored Jay County 15-12 to cut the deficit to two.

The final four minutes of the second quarter belonged to the Patriots as they went on a 10-0 run to the lead back to double digits before halftime.

With 27 points and nine first-half turnovers, McIntire issued a challenge to her team for the second half.

“I challenged them at halftime and said, ‘We’ve got a great support system here,’” McIntire recalled. “‘We have a lot of Jay County fans and they haven’t seen the Jay County team that can play the way we’re capable of playing.’”

The message was received.

The defensive intensity picked up as Breanna Dirksen and Molly Muhlenkamp created live-ball turnovers that led to easy buckets. Muhlenkamp scored nine points, all of which came either in transition or by swiping the ball away in the backcourt, in the third quarter.

“Just working with everyone else helped,” Muhlenkamp said. “Our energy picked up there and that just helps a lot with scoring.”

The Patriots let up on the gas in the fourth quarter, focusing more on killing the clock than scoring.

Only five Patriots scored, but four of them reached double figures. Hallie Schwieterman led with 14 points, Muhlenkamp and Sophie Saxman each contributed 13 and Bella Denton added 11.

Jay County senior Danielle May releases a 3-point attempt during the third quarter of the Patriots’ 18-point blowout of Delta on Friday. JCHS will play top-ranked Hamilton Heights in the sectional championship game at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Yorktown. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Delta played without three of its starters, as six players missed with various injuries and illnesses. Barr was the leading scorer in the Jan. 18 matchup with 14 points, but was held to seven as she had to step out of the paint and become a ball handler. The sophomore also sent back five shots in the game

Griffyn Knight lit the Patriots up with 23 points, shooting 7-for-13 from beyond the arc. She only had six points in the previous matchup.

Jay County controlled the glass, had more assists, created 26 turnovers and didn’t have trouble getting looks at the rim. Its primary struggles came from defending Knight on the 3-point line, losing possessions themselves (19 turnovers) and missing layups — JCHS shot 14-for-31 inside the paint (45.2%).

McIntire and Muhlenkamp attributed those problems to the lack of focus to begin the game, and said they can’t commit those errors against Hamilton Heights. The Huskies were responsible for Jay County’s only losses last season — 45-44 in overtime in regular season and 58-47 in the sectional semifinal — and also topped the Patriots 46-42 in the 2021 sectional title game and 36-33 in overtime in the sectional opener in 2022.

“I think we're gonna be mentally tough and ready to go tomorrow, no matter what,” said Muhlenkamp. “We’ll  be smarter with the ball, make good decisions and stay calm when we have control of it. We’ll fix those things.”