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YORKTOWN — It was a rough first half for Jillian Barr.
The senior scoring leader for Delta girls basketball had been held without a point through the first 15 minutes of the Eagles' sectional semifinal game against Jay County. Delta trailed for the entirety of the first half but managed to tie it at 20 with less than a minute until the break. The Eagles brought the ball back after getting a stop, and Barr finally broke through with a bucket in the post to give Delta its first lead of the game as the halftime buzzer sounded.
Barr's basket sent a jolt of electricity through the Delta bench, and she returned from the locker room looking re-energized. She would go on to score 16 points in the second half to power the Eagles to a 58-49 victory over Jay County in the IHSAA Class 3A Sectional 24 semifinals on Friday, Feb. 6.
More: IHSAA girls basketball sectionals scoreboard for East Central Indiana
"Obviously, I had a bad mentality at the beginning," Barr said. "But during halftime, when all my girls were hyped, and they were stepping it up, and they were encouraging me, that's what really helps. And then just making sure that I have faith in God, thinking back and always praising Him through the highs and the lows."
Barr entered the game needing 18 points to break the Delta girls basketball all-time scoring record of 1,408 held by 1992 Delta graduate Niki Steveson. She finished with exactly that to get to 1,409 career points.
"It feels amazing," Barr said. "Just going back to God, I love Him and He's just really helped me through these four seasons of basketball. Just knowing that I can stamp it in this last season is amazing."
Coincidentally, Barr's 1,409 career points places her in a tie with 2007 Muncie Southside graduate and current Delta coach Tyronda Benning on the Delaware County all-time scorer's list. While Benning did note (jokingly) that she scored her points against Class 4A competition instead of 3A, she expressed pride in Barr for having the chance to surpass her own career mark on Saturday.
"Honestly, it makes me feel really good to be able to coach that," Benning said. "I would rather any of my girls or even my son be a better basketball player than I ever was."
While Barr was quiet in the first half, the Eagles' offense was kept afloat by senior guard Addy Barnes, who scored 10 of Delta's 22 first-half points. Jay County's offense was similarly funneled through the Lady Patriots' own star guard, as junior Hallie Schwieterman scored 16 of their 20 first half points.
The two teams traded jabs to get to a 25-25 tie in the third quarter before Delta finally pieced together the first significant run of the game — a 13-0 stretch punctuated by Barnes' third 3-pointer of the evening. In the fourth quarter, Barr and Barnes would combine for 19 of Delta's 20 points as they maintained control of the game.
Barnes went 7-of-8 from the free throw line down the stretch to ice the game and finish with a new career high of 25 points. She recalled that she did not have her best game when Delta lost 55-51 to Jay County on Jan. 22 and knew they had to prioritize playing their game to flip the result in the rematch.
"I think we trust each other's abilities," Barnes said. "Offensively, we moved very, very well, like off-ball and things like that, just finding each other and knowing where each other is at. I think we just played our game. The first time we came out, I know for me personally, I didn't come out my best, and I know that being a leader, it can just affect our whole team.
"So today, we all came out, we all just played our best and knew that we had to play Delta basketball."
Meanwhile, Delta's defense put its focus on stopping Schwieterman in the second half, and they did just that by holding her to just two field goals and three free throws for seven second-half points. Freshman younger sister Karsyn Schwieterman broke through for 16 fourth quarter points to finish with 20, but most of them came with the game firmly in Delta's favor.
Benning highlighted the defensive efforts of freshman Jacquelin Linn as key to slowing down Hallie Schwieterman in the second half.
"Hallie's very good, you know, she's hard to stop," Benning said. "We have my freshman, Jacquelin Linn, she stepped up and she's been doing really well defensively, and that's what she's out there for. She has a lot of grit and a lot of heart, and when we tell her to do something, she goes and does exactly that."
Linn wasn't the only Delta underclassman to step up. Sophomore forward Ja'Niyah Johnson had a strong night on the glass, put in a pair of baskets and earned some trips to the free throw line to finish with seven points. Johnson's addition to the roster has given Delta more size and frontcourt depth to take some of the workload off of Barr.
"We're blessed because we don't have a small team," Benning said. "For a long time, Jillian was pretty much our tallest person, but now Jillian is like the fifth-tallest, so that's truly a blessing. Any given night, anybody who's playing well is going to play for me. Ja'Niyah stepped up tonight, she played really well, she played aggressive, so she played big minutes tonight."
While the loss was certainly a disappointing finish for such a talented Jay County team, the Lady Patriots showed obvious improvement this year by going 16-8 after finishing 10-13 last year. With only one senior graduating from a team clearly trending up, there's plenty to look forward to for Jay County girls basketball.
"Obviously, we're going to miss Raylah Newton," Jay County coach Sherri McIntire said. "She's our only senior, and we appreciate all that she's done for the Jay County basketball program. But Jay County has a bright future. I mean, we've got four of five starters coming back and kids that know what it takes to get better. These kids will get in the gym and they'll work.
"This team was 10-13 last year, and obviously this year we had a much better record. That just shows the growth, and I think next year it'll be even better."
Delta will turn its attention to Connersville in the Sectional 24 championship after the Spartans defeated Yorktown, 47-30, in Friday's other semifinal game. The Eagles will seek the seventh sectional title in program history and their first back-to-back titles since 1987-88. The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. ET at Yorktown.
Contact Cade Hampton via email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delta girls basketball defeats Jay County in IHSAA sectional semifinal
Continue reading...
The senior scoring leader for Delta girls basketball had been held without a point through the first 15 minutes of the Eagles' sectional semifinal game against Jay County. Delta trailed for the entirety of the first half but managed to tie it at 20 with less than a minute until the break. The Eagles brought the ball back after getting a stop, and Barr finally broke through with a bucket in the post to give Delta its first lead of the game as the halftime buzzer sounded.
Barr's basket sent a jolt of electricity through the Delta bench, and she returned from the locker room looking re-energized. She would go on to score 16 points in the second half to power the Eagles to a 58-49 victory over Jay County in the IHSAA Class 3A Sectional 24 semifinals on Friday, Feb. 6.
More: IHSAA girls basketball sectionals scoreboard for East Central Indiana
"Obviously, I had a bad mentality at the beginning," Barr said. "But during halftime, when all my girls were hyped, and they were stepping it up, and they were encouraging me, that's what really helps. And then just making sure that I have faith in God, thinking back and always praising Him through the highs and the lows."
Barr entered the game needing 18 points to break the Delta girls basketball all-time scoring record of 1,408 held by 1992 Delta graduate Niki Steveson. She finished with exactly that to get to 1,409 career points.
"It feels amazing," Barr said. "Just going back to God, I love Him and He's just really helped me through these four seasons of basketball. Just knowing that I can stamp it in this last season is amazing."
Coincidentally, Barr's 1,409 career points places her in a tie with 2007 Muncie Southside graduate and current Delta coach Tyronda Benning on the Delaware County all-time scorer's list. While Benning did note (jokingly) that she scored her points against Class 4A competition instead of 3A, she expressed pride in Barr for having the chance to surpass her own career mark on Saturday.
"Honestly, it makes me feel really good to be able to coach that," Benning said. "I would rather any of my girls or even my son be a better basketball player than I ever was."
While Barr was quiet in the first half, the Eagles' offense was kept afloat by senior guard Addy Barnes, who scored 10 of Delta's 22 first-half points. Jay County's offense was similarly funneled through the Lady Patriots' own star guard, as junior Hallie Schwieterman scored 16 of their 20 first half points.
The two teams traded jabs to get to a 25-25 tie in the third quarter before Delta finally pieced together the first significant run of the game — a 13-0 stretch punctuated by Barnes' third 3-pointer of the evening. In the fourth quarter, Barr and Barnes would combine for 19 of Delta's 20 points as they maintained control of the game.
Barnes went 7-of-8 from the free throw line down the stretch to ice the game and finish with a new career high of 25 points. She recalled that she did not have her best game when Delta lost 55-51 to Jay County on Jan. 22 and knew they had to prioritize playing their game to flip the result in the rematch.
"I think we trust each other's abilities," Barnes said. "Offensively, we moved very, very well, like off-ball and things like that, just finding each other and knowing where each other is at. I think we just played our game. The first time we came out, I know for me personally, I didn't come out my best, and I know that being a leader, it can just affect our whole team.
"So today, we all came out, we all just played our best and knew that we had to play Delta basketball."
Meanwhile, Delta's defense put its focus on stopping Schwieterman in the second half, and they did just that by holding her to just two field goals and three free throws for seven second-half points. Freshman younger sister Karsyn Schwieterman broke through for 16 fourth quarter points to finish with 20, but most of them came with the game firmly in Delta's favor.
Benning highlighted the defensive efforts of freshman Jacquelin Linn as key to slowing down Hallie Schwieterman in the second half.
"Hallie's very good, you know, she's hard to stop," Benning said. "We have my freshman, Jacquelin Linn, she stepped up and she's been doing really well defensively, and that's what she's out there for. She has a lot of grit and a lot of heart, and when we tell her to do something, she goes and does exactly that."
Linn wasn't the only Delta underclassman to step up. Sophomore forward Ja'Niyah Johnson had a strong night on the glass, put in a pair of baskets and earned some trips to the free throw line to finish with seven points. Johnson's addition to the roster has given Delta more size and frontcourt depth to take some of the workload off of Barr.
"We're blessed because we don't have a small team," Benning said. "For a long time, Jillian was pretty much our tallest person, but now Jillian is like the fifth-tallest, so that's truly a blessing. Any given night, anybody who's playing well is going to play for me. Ja'Niyah stepped up tonight, she played really well, she played aggressive, so she played big minutes tonight."
While the loss was certainly a disappointing finish for such a talented Jay County team, the Lady Patriots showed obvious improvement this year by going 16-8 after finishing 10-13 last year. With only one senior graduating from a team clearly trending up, there's plenty to look forward to for Jay County girls basketball.
"Obviously, we're going to miss Raylah Newton," Jay County coach Sherri McIntire said. "She's our only senior, and we appreciate all that she's done for the Jay County basketball program. But Jay County has a bright future. I mean, we've got four of five starters coming back and kids that know what it takes to get better. These kids will get in the gym and they'll work.
"This team was 10-13 last year, and obviously this year we had a much better record. That just shows the growth, and I think next year it'll be even better."
Delta will turn its attention to Connersville in the Sectional 24 championship after the Spartans defeated Yorktown, 47-30, in Friday's other semifinal game. The Eagles will seek the seventh sectional title in program history and their first back-to-back titles since 1987-88. The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. ET at Yorktown.
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Contact Cade Hampton via email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delta girls basketball defeats Jay County in IHSAA sectional semifinal
Continue reading...
