Web exclusive: An amazing moment

Editor’s note: Over the last few months, we have run brief looks back at the 2005-06 season that the Jay County High School boys basketball team capped with a run to the Class 3A state championship game. Those culminated with a recap of the sectional final last week. In this web exclusive, we're reprinting the March 13, 2006, column about the regional title.

I don’t remember exactly how much time was left.
And I don’t remember what the score was.
But in the final minute Saturday, I looked up, glancing at the scoreboard as I do so many times throughout a season. Then, it hit me: “Oh my God, they’re going to win.”
Most fans have experienced those moments — the exact second you realize it’s actually going to happen.
I knew going into the weekend the Patriots had a chance to win. I knew it even more after watching the semifinal games earlier in the day. And I knew they were in the lead.
But what a feeling it was to know for sure.
Wawasee had rallied from a six-point deficit in the final 50 seconds of its semifinal victory over Fort Wayne Concordia earlier in the day, but when the Patriots pulled ahead in the closing minutes there was no hint of a similar comeback.
Unlike Concordia, Jay County wasn’t going to give the game away to the sixth-ranked defending regional champions by missing free throws. The Patriots hit their final 10 tries, completing a 50-of-59 day from the line.
The tremendous free-throw shooting was the key to this team realizing its potential.
After opening 9-2, it stumbled with injuries and illnesses at mid-season. Losses to Anderson Highland, Fort Recovery and Delta knocked a potentially record-setting season off course.
But only temporarily.
When the tournament arrived, the Patriots returned to early-season form. Actually, they’ve been even better.
Juniors Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman and Corey Comer aren’t juniors anymore. They have played like seniors. They carried the team on their backs in the sectional semifinal and final rounds, and were magnificent again in the regional.
Randy Evans, who disappeared for the first four tournament games, emerged when the Patriots needed him most. Trailing in the fourth quarter he scored 10 of the team’s first 15 points, his free throws with 3:14 remaining giving them the lead for good.
Tyler Rigby continued to be the leader of this team he has always been. Zac Green was the quiet professional, nonchalantly making big play after big play.
John Retter and Clint Muhlenkamp joined Comer to provide the power underneath. After falling behind 7-2 on the glass early in the semifinal win over Tippecanoe Valley, they led the Patriots to a 36-27 advantage on the boards for the remainder of the day.
And Luke Goetz played huge minutes in the fourth quarter of the finale when Bruggeman picked up his fourth foul. The shortest player on the floor at 5-feet, 5-inches, it was he who hit the big bucket underneath off an assist from Retter with 1:48 to play to give the Patriots a six-point lead.
Spurred along by the coaching staff, their teammates who pushed them in practice but did not make it on the floor and the fans, they got over a hurdle no Jay County basketball team has ever jumped before.
And they reveled in the championship moment, as well they should.
Still, Comer and Goetz were more than aware their magical journey is not over.
“I knew we could do it the whole time,” Comer said. “We didn’t play as well as we should have, as well as we can, so we’ll have to do that next week.”
“It’s amazing,” said Goetz. “There’s nothing like it ... besides winning semi-state and state.”