By RICK SPRUNGER
PORTLAND – It almost didn’t seem fair.
The Jay County Lady Patriots start not one, not two, but three 6-footers.
And then they go outside the arc and knock down 8 of 10 three-pointers in the first half.
It all added up to a 60-28 walk in the park for Jay County, ranked No. 9 in Class 3A and now with a 10-game winning streak, the last nine of them by an average of nearly 32 points per game.
But Bluffton coach Eric Mounsey was all smiles when it was over.
“I was really proud of how we kept fighting, how we didn’t hang our heads,” beamed Mounsey after the game. “We didn’t start the game saying, ‘Oh, gosh, it’s Jay County, they’re ranked ninth, and I really don’t want any part of this.’”
Bluffton (6-10, 2-3) hung around really well for the first three minutes and trailed just 10-8 with Maryn Schreiber scoring all 8 points for the Tigers on four field goals, all of them from under the basket after wading in among the trees.
After that, however, Jay County (13-2, 4-0) ran away and hid.
Between the 4:42 mark of the first quarter and the 1:51 mark of the second, the Patriots outscored Bluffton by a whopping 32-4 margin and took a 30-point, 45-15, lead into the lockerroom.
“But you know what?” said Mounsey. “We only let them add 2 points to that lead by the end of the game.”
They also didn’t let Jay County run the clock until the fourth quarter.
“We were doing so many of the little teammate kind of things so well, encouraging each other, picking each other up,” Mounsey said. “We just kept fighting.”
At the center of the Jay County attack was Renna Schwieterman, a 6-foot junior, who scored 25 points on 9-for-18 shooting from the field.
In the first half alone, she scored 22 points and was 6-for-7 from behind the arc.
She scored the first 7 points in that big first-half Jay County run before Isabel Rodgers buried back-to-back threes to put the Patriots on top at the break, 23-10.
After those first 8 points by Schreiber, Bluffton found the points few and far between for the remainder of the first half.
Lily King got a bucket underneath at the 1:43 mark of the first quarter, Ryleigh Johnson scored on a baseline jumper with 6:28 left in the second, and Haley Gibson got a 3-pointer to fall late in the first half.
But the Tigers stubbornly refused to allow the vaunted Jay County squad to run the clock on them in the third quarter, holding out until the first minute of the fourth.
Madison Dirksen, one of Jay County’s three 6-footers, was the only other player on either team besides Schwieterman to reach double figures, finishing with 10 points, 8 of them in the second half.
Schreiber and King paced Bluffton with 8 points apiece.
Jay County finished 24-for-53 from the field for the game for a 45.3 shooting percentage, including 17-for-27 (63 percent) in the first half when the game was really decided.
Bluffton was 11-for-33 (33.3 percent) from the floor.
Despite a crippling height disadvantage, Bluffton was only beaten on the boards by a narrow 29-27 margin.
Jay County also took the junior varsity contest by a 41-24 score.
Bluffton was led by Ayla Nern with 11 points. Tyrah Shaw added 6 points.
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JAY COUNTY 60, BLUFFTON 28
At Jay County High School
BLUFFTON (6-10, 2-3): Isabella Stout 0-0 0-0 0, Ryleigh Johnson 2-5 2-2 6, Monroe Heller 1-7 0-0 3, Maryn Scheiber 4-6 0-0 8, Haley Gibson 1-7 0-0 3, Tressa Renner 0-0 0-2 0, Marly Drayer 0-3 0-0 0, Lily King 3-5 0-0 8, Cayah King 0-0 0-0 0, Kennedy Nash 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 11-33 2-4 28.
JAY COUNTY (13-2, 4-0): Sophie Saxman 3-3 0-0 6, Gabi Bilbrey 3-6 3-4 9, Isabel Rodgers 2-5 0-0 6, Renna Schwieterman 9-18 1-2 25, Madison Dirksen 5-12 0-1 10, Breanna Dirksen 0-1 0-0 0, Molly Muhlenkamp 2-3 0-0 4, Cash Hollowell 0-1 0-0 0, Cassie Petro 0-3 0-0 0, Bella Denton 0-1 0-0 0, Meredith Dirksen 0-0 0-0 0, Daisy Muhlenkamp 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 24-53 4-7 60.
Bluffton 10 5 8 5 –– 28
Jay County 23 22 11 4 –– 60
Three-point Goals: Bluffton 4-16 (Heller 1-7, Gibson 1-6, King 2-3), Jay County 8-15 (Rodgers 2-3, Schwieterman 6-10, Ma. Dirksen 0-2). Rebounds: Bluffton 27 (Renner 5), Jay County 29 (Ma. Dirksen 8, Schwieterman 6, Bilbrey 5). Turnovers: Bluffton 25, Jay County 9. Fouls: Bluffton 10, Jay County 5. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: Jay County 41, Bluffton 24.
