Brock breaks Wayne

When Kegan Comer left the game with a knee injury, someone needed to fill the void.
Brock McFarland was ready.
The junior guard scored the most points by a Patriot player in more than a decade, leading Jay County High School boys basketball team to a 60-44 victory over the visiting Wayne Generals.
McFarland punished Wayne inside and out, leading Jay County to a 71-percent shooting effort as he scored a career-high 34 points.
“When Kegan went down, the gym was pretty quiet,” said JCHS coach Craig Teagle, whose team is now 15-2. “Brock understood that some of the load was going to be on him. He’s the most experienced player we have and our leading scorer. …
“He did an excellent job. That’s what a junior captain does for you.”
Comer, who was able to return wearing a knee brace in the second half, went out of the game after twisting his right knee when he stepped on the foot of a Wayne player early in the second quarter. He remained in the training room for most of the period, but it didn’t slow down the Patriots.
Jay County ran clear-out plays for McFarland, who repeatedly got the rim as the home team turned a two-point, first-quarter deficit into a 20-13 halftime lead.
With McFarland leading the way, the Patriots outscored Wayne 13-4 in the second quarter. He never slowed down, shooting 8-of-10 from the field, including 3-for-3 from long distance, and leading Jay County’s free-throw shooting domination by going 15-of-16 at the line.
“It’s kind of been the story of our season the last six or seven games,” said Wayne coach Aaron Reher. “Either we don’t shoot good from the free-throw line or the other team gets to the free-throw line a lot and we get outscored quite a bit. … I know we got demolished from the free-throw line.”
The Patriots were 26-of-29 (90 percent) at the stripe overall compared to just 4-of-9 for Wayne (8-9). The Generals did not attempt a free throw during the first half.
McFarland’s effort at the line helped him to the best scoring effort for JCHS since Chad Towell set the school record with 43 points in a 74-73 loss to Fort Recovery in 1999.
“We shot free throws extremely well,” said Teagle. “It was good to see that we were aggressive going to the hole.“A lot of that was just Brock putting the scoring on his shoulders and just getting (to the line),” said Teagle. “And a lot of it was Scott Schwieterman did a nice job catching it in the post and dumping it down on cuts.”
Schwieterman followed McFarland with 12 points and finished 4-of-5 from the line. Jacob Schlosser, who saw by far his most minutes of the season, scored all of his points on free throws as he went 7-of-8.
“Jake shot free throws well for us,” said Teagle. “(He’s) a quick kid and a good ball handler and we felt like we would really need that today.”
The Patriots still led by seven after three quarters, and scored the first four points of the fourth to put the game firmly in their control.
“If they … have a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter it’s going to be tough to get back,” said Rehrer. “We’ve played every single team that’s in our sectional. We ended up 2-3 and, every game except for this one really, we were right with them and we had a chance to win.”
Kendan Lewis and Justin Mitchell finished with 13 and 12 points respectively for the Generals, who grabbed just eight rebounds to Jay County’s 22.
Wayne became the first team in more than a month to break the 40-point barrier against the Patriots, but they still walked away with their ninth straight victory. They are one win away from guaranteeing themselves the best winning percentage in school history.

Junior varsity
The Patriots picked up a 28-23 victory over Wayne.
Kyle Selvey led Jay County to the win with eight points. Zane Shreve and Darren Bogenschutz followed with five points apiece.
Alex Catalan finished with five points to lead the Generals. Tai Starks scored four.[[In-content Ad]]