JC zeroes out Tigers

Both teams walked into the gym Friday with zero conference losses.

In the first quarter, the Tigers recorded several more zeroes.

Zero made free throws on two attempts.

Zero made field goals on seven attempts.

Zero points.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team rode a dominant first quarter to a 40-24 Senior Night victory over Bluffton to give it firm control of the battle for the Allen County Athletic Conference regular-season title.

“Ugly win, but I’m glad we got it for our seniors,” said JCHS coach Sherri McIntire. “Bluffton is just very physical. I didn’t think at times we matched their physicality. …

“I’m just happy to get out of here tonight with a win. Senior Night. I told them we had two jobs. We’ve got to do our first job and that will make our second job a lot more fun, and that’s celebrating these seniors.”

After Molly Muhlenkamp missed on a drive on the Patriots’ opening possession, she attacked the lane again and scored the game’s first points with 6:08 on the clock. Back-to-back hoops by Sophie Saxman made it 6-0, and a 3-pointer from Hallie Schwieterman and two free throws from Bella Denton pushed the lead to 11 at the quarter break.

Nothing at all went right for Bluffton in those opening eight minutes, as even a wide open shot off of a perfectly executed baseline inbound play rimmed out.

The Tigers, now 13-4 and losers of three of their last four, were 0-for-8 with eight turnovers before Maryn Schreiber (six points) finally broke through with a layup on a broken play at the 6:27 mark of the second quarter. A 3-pointer from the left corner by Haley Gibson made it 13-5, but Bluffton would get no closer.

“You can’t put them up that many points,” said Bluffton coach Doug Curtis. “They’ve got two losses on the year and they’ve played a really good schedule. You can’t spot them 10 or 11 points.”

The Patriots scored the next seven points in a row and pushed to a 21-10 lead at halftime. The advantage hovered between nine and the final margin of 16 throughout the second half.

Sophie Saxman led the team’s contingent of seniors on Senior Night, building on her hot streak for a new career-high of 20 points to surpass the 19 she put up Dec. 16 against South Adams. 

She shot 7-of-11 from the field and hit 6-of-8 free throws while also pulling down a game-high eight rebounds and dishing out a couple of assists.

She’s averaged 15.6 points over the last seven games.

“Sophie’s just on a role,” said McIntire. “She’s rebounding and being such an offensive threat. She just plays so hard, with so much heart. She’s just hard to stop because she just works so dang hard. I’m just really proud of her.”

Denton, another senior, followed Saxman with eight points while Schwieterman, a freshman, hit a couple of 3-pointers as she finished with seven points. Amongst the other Patriot seniors, all of whom started, Muhlenkamp had thee points, Danielle May chipped in two points and Breanna Dirksen totalled five assists.

The win puts JCHS (15-2, 4-0 ACAC) in solid control for the regular-season conference title with games against Southern Wells (4-11) and Heritage (1-13) remaining. Bluffton is now 4-1 in the conference.

“Losing this game, our goal is obviously to get another shot at them,” said Curtis, referencing next week’s conference tournament. “The only way to do that is to get to the Saturday game.”

Junior varsity

Jay County scored enough points in the first quarter of the two-quarter contest to win as it defeated the Tigers 22-13.

Alexis Sibray and Natalie Carreno each had six first-quarter points as the Patriots rolled out to a 15-8 advantage. The home team then limited Bluffton to five points in the second quarter.

Carreno kept her scoring going, finishing with a game-high 13 points. Sibray was next with six and Raylah Newton had the other three.

Addison Yates paced Bluffton with five points.