Triple trouble

DECATUR — Nothing stopped Karsyn Schwieterman from getting to the rim and pulling the Patriots back into the game during the second quarter.

But just as soon as the Patriots got back into it, the Braves drained a triple.

And then another.

And another.

And another.

When the buzzer sounded for the intermission, the difference had ballooned to 14 points. The Braves never let their visitors back in.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team gave up four threes in the final 2 minutes, 20 seconds, of the first half and only managed four second-half field goals as it fell to the Class 3A No. 6 Bellmont Braves 60-39 on Friday.

“I felt like we definitely showed that we were capable of playing at that level with that quality of a team, so now we just need to do it for 32 minutes,” said JCHS coach Sherri McIntire. “Credit to Bellmont. They are a very fine ball club. …

“I just felt like there were times tonight, where we came and went. When we were here and playing well, I felt like we competed and we could compete at that level. Then there were times that we didn’t and we had some breakdowns with turnovers and not contesting shots. But I saw promise tonight.”

A lot of that promise came in the second quarter, when Karsyn Schwieterman — she led Jay County (1-2) with 17 points — got to the rim four times to slice what was at one point a 12-0 deficit down to just four points.

After the freshman knocked down her final points of the quarter at the free-throw line, the Braves (4-0) started punching back as Lanie French kicked the ball out for Ashley Bleke to hit a triple from the left wing.

The Patriots had an answer for the first three as Hallie Schwieterman pulled up from the elbow to down her second field goal of the game.

French hit the final three 3-pointers — two came from the left wing and a final one on an elevator screen — on assists from Kate Kitson to reclaim control for Bellmont with a 34-29 lead at the intermission.

“We were just not rotating in our defense,” said McIntire, who switched her team to a man-to-man scheme after giving up the first 12 points of the game. “We were supposed to be switching and we just didn’t rotate and she got open looks.”

While the Braves’ offense impressed in the first half, it was their defense on the Schwieterman sisters that carried them in the second half. Any time Hallie or Karsyn Schwieterman attempted to penetrate the arc and reach the paint, a swarm of Braves would collapse to swallow up the drive before they could get too deep.

“We talked all week about stopping them high in the lane,” said BHS coach Andy Heim. “I think our athleticism is a thing we can chalk up as a win against most teams and I thought it was the same there.

“They might be quicker than us, but our athleticism kinda helped that.

“We talked about doubling off of anybody that’s not another Schwieterman onto the Schwietermans and at times we executed that. At times we needed a little bit of help. We hadn’t gone zone much all year, but when we sank back in there, it sort of threw them off their game and gave us a little bit of momentum.”

Karsyn Schwieterman had only one basket in the second half as Raylah Newton found her in transition with 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Cutting off the Schwietermans stalled the offense for the rest of the team as well. The only hoops other than Karsyn Schwieterman’s layup came on an Elizabeth Brunswick  corner three and drive to the rim to open the fourth quarter and a Natalie May score on a curl cut assisted by Newton.

The other 10 points for JCHS in the second half came at the charity stripe.

While Jay County struggled to score in the third quarter, Bellmont took advantage of seven JCHS turnovers in the period. The Braves pushed to a 45-23 advantage that the Patriots couldn’t recover from.