Schwieterman squared

One Schwieterman was hard enough for Jay County’s rivals to stop.

Now, the Patriots have two.

Sisters Hallie and Karsyn Schwieterman combined for 31 points as the Jay County High School girls basketball team unleashed a 62-16 steamrolling of the visiting Fort Wayne South Side Archers in Tuesday night’s season opener.

“I was very pleased,” said Jay County coach Sherri McIntire. “I felt like we had lots of people contribute, whether they were scoring, or making a good pass, or getting a defensive stop or even a rebound. And Fort Wayne South’s a team that always brings a lot of athleticism and physicality, and I think at the end of the day, we can say we were better basketball players than them.”

Perhaps no player was better on Tuesday than Karsyn Schwieterman, who poured in a game-high 17 points in her high school debut. The freshman did her best work early in the game, running the offense and scoring 13 points in a 25-0 Jay County run that stretched a six-point first-quarter edge into a 39-8 lead moments before halftime.

“We played really good together as a team,” Karsyn Schwieterman said. “I feel like we’ve been working hard in practice, and now, obviously, it showed. … My coaches and my teammates, they helped me have confidence.”

Karsyn Schwieterman’s scoring spree came after Hallie Schwieterman, the Patriots’ leading scorer in each of the last two seasons, was forced to the bench after picking up a pair of early fouls. The elder Schwieterman, who finished the game with 14 points including 3-for-4 from beyond the arc, was happy to share the spotlight with her younger sibling.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” Hallie Schwieterman said. “She’s put so much work in, and it shows on the court, and even just her attitude, everything is amazing, and I couldn’t ask any more from a sister, and I’m so proud of her, and I can’t wait to see what else she does.”

Karsyn Schwieterman wasn’t the only young Patriot to find success on Tuesday. The team’s other four freshmen — Charlotte Peters, Claudia Dirksen, Kendall Schemenaur and Alivya Schwieterman — also each recorded their first varsity basket. In total, freshmen accounted for 29 of the Patriots’ 62 points.

“They just don’t overthink things,” McIntire said of the freshman class. “They just go out, they play, they don’t worry about who’s scoring, who’s rebounding. They just want to play, they play well together, they jell well together. They’re definitely a fun group, and they’ve got a bright future ahead of them.”

It wasn’t just the youngsters who excelled for Jay County, either. Ten different Patriots made at least one field goal in the rout.

“That’s just a tribute to these kids,” McIntire said. “They’re good kids and they want to do well as a team, and that’s good early in the season to be bonded like that and be willing to share the basketball.”

Though the opening-night victory marked the fifth straight year that Jay County (1-0) has beaten the Archers (0-2) to start their season, the lopsided triumph could still be a sign of better fortunes after the Patriots finished 10-13 last year, their first losing season in over a decade. Tuesday’s 46-point bludgeoning was a greater margin of victory than Jay County achieved in any of its victories a season ago.

“Our hustle this year is just insane,” Hallie Schwieterman said. “Everybody wants to be out on the court, everybody wants to go for a ball, everybody’s diving on the floor for a ball. It doesn’t matter, every single 50-50 ball is ours, and I love that about this team, and I think that’s what’s going to win us big games.”