16 stunned

FOUNTAIN CITY — The Patriots hadn't played a game in 15 days.

They trailed by more points than that Wednesday before finally hitting the inside of the hoop.

Northeastern opened the night with 16 straight points. The Jay County High School boys basketball team got back within two possessions during the third quarter but dropped a 50-34 contest to the host Knights.

“Obviously disappointed to get ourselves again in a big hole,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt, whose team has lost three straight games after opening the season with Bomholt's 550th career win. “That's three times in a row now because we started slow not making shots on the offensive end.

“We tried to spread the floor … when I saw the officials (I knew) they were going to call fouls. We got one foul called against them in the first half. We're not going to be able to live and be successful shooting six free throws in a game. We have to shoot 15 to 20.”

Things unraveled rather quickly for the Patriots (1-3), who host Muncie Central on Saturday night. They missed twice on their opening possession but grabbed offensive rebounds both times. Alas, the possession ended in a turnover. A turnover the next trip down the court and then a missed 3-pointer made it three consecutive times the Patriots came up empty.

Then back-to-back turnovers, a blocked shot and two more misses made things worse offensively for the Patriots.

Meanwhile, Northeastern (6-2) raced out to a comfortable lead. Carter Lumpkin made two corner 3-pointers, Raedhyn Foust and Kolden Vanlandingham both had four points and Ben Deitsch added two more as the Knights cruised to start.

Once Jay County junior Ethan Dirksen drained a corner three of his own, there was 1:10 on the clock and the drought was over.

The Patriots came out in the third quarter and reversed fortune a little bit by scoring six straight points, cutting the margin to 28-21. Bennett Weitzel had a basket on a Dusty Pearson assist, and then Dirksen hit a jumper from the right side of the lane. Weitzel then got a jump shot from the right baseline to fall following a Dirksen pass, and the Patriots were within reach.

But a six-point swing the other way — two free throws each from Payton Lumpkin and Vanlandingham followed by a back-door layup from Vanlandingham — pushed the margin back to double digits.

Quinn Faulkner and Weitzel both scored for Jay County, which trailed 34-25 heading into the fourth quarter.

“We work our way back into the game after digging a hole, tells you a little about their character,” Bomholt said. Jay County was 6-of-20 (30%) from the field in the first half and 15-for-23 (65.2%) after intermission.

“But we've got to get in that situation where we get there and we get over the hump,” Bomholt continued. “We're not there yet.”

Vanlandingham, who was averaging 28 points per game coming in, led all players with 19. Carter Lumpkin followed with 11 points and Payton Lumpkin chipped in 10.

Dirksen was Jay County's leading scorer with nine points, and Weitzel was second with eight.

The reason for Northeastern's first-quarter burst was three-fold: Jay County allowed four offensive rebounds that extended the Knights' possessions, the Patriots got five offensive boards themselves but didn't finish and JCHS appeared to be too timid at taking a shot once they were within 10 feet of the hoop.

“We've got a couple guys, I tell them 'You turn down shots, we're going to take you out,'” Bomholt said. “You can't turn down shots. We've got guys that when you've got 8- to 10-footers, you've got to shoot it.

“You might miss it, you might miss the next seven, but you've got to shoot it. It's a confidence thing.”

Jay County picked up the contest with the Northeastern on Monday following the cancellation of the Holiday Hoops Tournament at Huntington North that had been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Bomholt wanted to give his youthful squad the challenge of playing such an experienced team (the Knights have four sectional titles in the last seven years).

“We're learning,” he said. “You have to play people that are better than you early so they can show you your weaknesses. This is the first team that's really pressed us hard. And that's one of the reasons we decided to come down here and play.

“We're going to keep battling. One of these days that light switch is going to go on.”



Junior varsity

Jay County left still on the search for its first win of the season after a 42-28 loss to Northeastern.

The Patriots (0-4) fell behind 12-3 at the end of the first quarter before the Knights bumped the lead to 23-13 at halftime. The score was 31-20 in favor of the home team heading into the final period.

Brady Davis scored nine points to lead Jay County in the loss. Blake Bogenschutz finished with eight points, and Trent Alexander had a half dozen points.