Fateful forty

HUNTINGTON — Forty turnovers.
Like any game, there were a lot of factors that played into the outcome Tuesday.
But it was the turnovers — 40 of them — that brought an end to the Patriots’ season.
Jay County High School’s boys basketball team gave the ball away nearly as often as it attempted shots in its Class 4A sectional opening at Huntington North, falling 72-69 in overtime to the South Side Archers.
“They just throw a lot of pressure at you,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose squad lost despite a 63-percent shooting effort (27-of-43) and 35 points from junior Jay Houck. “They’ll throw two or three guys at you, and our fundamentals tonight were not very good. We didn’t jump-stop. We were out of control at times.”
It wasn’t from a pretty game for the Archers, either. They shot 34 percent from the field and 57 percent from the line while getting out-rebounded by 16.
But it was the sheer volume of JCHS turnovers — 40 of them — that proved to be the difference.
“We were horrible form the free-throw line. We got out-rebounded, 5-for-21 from the three,” said South Side coach Mike Novell. “How do you win games like that?
“We had to get in their face and make them do things.”
A turnover proved key in the extra session after South Side’s Austin Boucher scored to give his team a two-point lead and Krieg called timeout.
The Patriots (17-7) were hoping to come out of the brief break and run a play to either tie the game or take the lead. Instead, Adam Dirksen missed a pass from Cole Stigleman and the ball scooted out of bounds into the JCHS bench — the 39th turnover.
South Side (16-7), which at that point was 12-of-24 from the line, got a pair of free throws from Kj King to extend its lead to four. And then after Houck scored to pull the Patriots back within two, Boucher connected on two more free throws with 20.9 seconds left for a 71-67 advantage.
Jay County still had time to work with, but the ensuing inbound pass from Stigleman skipped past Houck out of bounds for turnover number 40.
“You’re not going to win very many games turning it over 40 times,” said Krieg.
Korey Joyner split his free throws with 16.7 seconds left to give the Archers a five-point lead, and the Patriots’ season ended two seconds after Houck recorded his final bucket to complete the 35-point effort.
Houck, who missed on just two of his 15 field-goal attempts, obliterated his previous career high of 24 points, tying Rod Ashman for fourth on the school’s single-game scoring list. The only players who have scored more are Chad Towell (43), Matt Wendel (38) and Dan Ferrell (36).
The junior tallied the Patriots’ first eight points, had 10 in their 12-0 run to open the game and was within five of his career high by halftime. After a scoreless third quarter, he carried JCHS in the fourth as he drained a 3-pointer to reclaim the lead at 51-49 at the 5:41 mark and later hit the game-tying hoop that forced overtime.
He was 5-of-6 from 3-point range, made four free throws, grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double, dished out five assists and had a block.
“Jay, what a phenomenal night from that young man,” said Krieg. “He came out on fire. …
“The way Jay started, I told Jay, ‘Look, you’re feeling it. You do whatever you want to do.’ Because guess what, he can.”
The hot start and 9-0 run later had Jay County up by 15 two minutes into the second quarter. But they gave up 13 straight points and went into the locker room clinging to a 30-27 lead.
South Side pulled ahead thanks to a 9-0 run late in the third quarter, and the fourth was a back-and-fourth affair that saw the game tied at 51, 53, 58 and, finally, 62 at the end of regulation.
“The good thing is we’ve been there. We’ve been down by 22 at halftime and come back and won. We know we can do it,” said Novell, whose team advances to play Muncie Central (14-9) in the first of two sectional semifinal games Friday. “It’s a matter of just being tough enough to handle the pressure, especially when you’re not shooting well. … We didn’t shoot well all night. I think we were a little bit lucky, but also we had a lot of kids just gut it out one way or another to find a way.”
Homestead (18-5) will play in Friday’s other sectional semifinal after it won its opening-round game 42-40 Tuesday over a Huntington North (16-9) squad led by former JCHS coach Craig Teagle. It will play Wayne (7-14), a team it lost to by two on Feb. 9.
The loss for the Patriots, who beat South Side 58-55 on Feb. 4, ended their 15th consecutive winning season. Their year included a nine-game winning streak as well as the school’s first Allen County Athletic Conference titles — regular-season and tournament — in boys basketball.
“I’m proud of our kids,” said Krieg. “We battled, we fought hard … we just came up short tonight.”