Devils defeat Jay

RICHMOND — Jay County was short-handed.
It was racked with foul trouble.
A squad that had held opponents to fewer than 40 points in six straight games, it had just allowed 22 in a single quarter.
And then it gave up the first four of the second half to trail by 18 points on the road.
Still, the Patriots were far from finished.
Using a 19-6 run, Jay County hacked its deficit down to five points with just under four minutes to go before its comeback attempt fell shot in a 56-48 loss to the Richmond Red Devils.
“We were down 18 at one point, but we were battling and scrapping and then all of a sudden we started pulling a little closer,” said JCHS coach Craig Teagle. “I give the kids the credit in the second half. They fought. They battled. They had to fight some adversity. We were in a lot of foul trouble.
“I like the grittiness. To me, that’s how Jay County teams play. You don’t give up. You don’t give in. You just keep fighting, and you never know what’s going to happen.”
The Patriots (5-3) got to within 12 at the end of the third quarter only to have Richmond score the first hoop of the fourth. But senior Drew Houck followed with the lone JCHS 3-pointer of the game to kick off a 9-0 run that closed the game to 45-40.
The Red Devils, however, didn’t let Jay County get any closer, pushing their lead back to 11 on the way to the win.
“I have the utmost respect for Jay County basketball and what coach Teagle does as far as preparing and how hard those guys play,” said Richmond coach Joe Luce. “Without a doubt, the game is never over until the final horn. That’s nothing but what I expected from them. … I think it’s a good lesson for our guys of what a never-say-die, competitive team looks like. It’s always good to compete against Jay County.”
Richmond used a balanced effort to knock off the Patriots, getting a team-high 14 points from Kiante Fahie. Tyren Tillman scored nine points, and Chandler Miller and Brian Webster each added eight.
Jon Trawick, who lit up JCHS for 26 points last season, finished with seven points.
“Overall, we’re just a better team from top to bottom (than we were last year),” said Luce, who also got 10 rebounds and a pair of blocks from Miller. “I think the most important things is we have a bunch of different weapons.”
The Patriots struggled on offense early, shooting just 2-of-8 in the first quarter and falling behind by 10 early in the second. Richmond tallied 11 points in the final 2:49 of the opening half, all on free throws.
Those included a pair when Teagle was hit with a technical foul for questioning a foul called against Drew Houck.
“I thought, obviously, we were extremely flat to start the game,” said Teagle. “I take full responsibility for that. I just didn’t feel like I had us ready to play. You could just see it in their eyes. … We didn’t play very hard or very smart in the first half, and we didn’t show much poise, head coach included …”
Both teams were in foul trouble in the first half as Jay County had five players with two or more personal fouls and Richmond had four. It especially hurt the Patriots, who were without starters Garrett Krieg (injury) and Scott Schwieterman (inelligible) for the second straight game.
A sure sign that they were short on manpower came when Teagle left Brock McFarland on the floor after he picked up his second personal foul late in the first half. As a rule, Teagle substitutes for players who pick up two fouls in the opening half. However, every player on his bench either already had two fouls or was limited because of playing in the junior varsity game.
“I would have loved to have Scott and Garrett for the game, but we didn’t and so I thought the kids stepped up and picked it up,” said Teagle, whose team still out-rebounded Richmond 32-21 but committed 18 turnovers. “Each one tried to play maybe a notch above what they’d been giving us.”
Kegan Comer scored on a variety of drives down the left side of the lane and finished with a game-high 16 points to go along with five assists and four rebounds. Brock McFarland had 11 points and five boards, and Tyler Back finished with eight points and six rebounds.
Houck and Stephen Scott added five boards apiece.

Junior varsity
Eight different players scored for Richmond as it knocked off the Patriots 31-27.
Jacob Schlosser scored 10 of his game-high 12 points for Jay County in the second half, hitting two 3-pointers in the third quarter and all four of his free-throw attempts in the fourth. Blake Crouch tallied all of hits five points in the final period.
Vadial Jett finished with 10 points for Richmond. Jacob Hampton and Kristian Rodriquez each added four.[[In-content Ad]]