No. 4 Norwell blows out the Patriots

OSSIAN — Norwell entered the game with the number 4 attached to its name.

The Patriots left the floor at halftime with four points on the scoreboard.

Offense was a struggle for the Jay County High School boys basketball team Friday night as it fell behind by 29 at halftime in a 52-22 loss to the host Class 3A No. 4 Norwell Knights.

Norwell (19-1), which has won 11 in a row and suffered its only loss this season to Class 3A No. 6 Mishawaka Marian, opened the game with an alley-oop hoop and ran out to an 11-0 lead. It took the Patriots (6-14) more than 7 minutes, 30 seconds, before senior Noah Arbuckle finally got them on the board.

Jay County trailed 14-2 at the quarter break and then gave up with the first 11 points of the second quarter. A Will Geiger 3-pointer just before time ran out in the first half pushed the Knights to a 33-4 advantage.

The Patriots scored the first four points of the second half, but there was no rally to be had against Norwell.

Geiger made sure of that as he nearly matched the entire JCHS scoring total, finishing with 21 points. Freshman Luke McBride, son of coach Mike McBride, hit three 3-pointers as he followed with 11 points for the Knights, who shot 53 percent for the game.

Jay County suffered its third loss of 30 points or more and was held to its lowest scoring output of the season after shooting just 2-of-12 (17 percent) in the opening half. The previous low came in a 41-25 loss Jan. 11 at Adams Central.

Bennett Weitzel, who scored the Patriots’ only hoop of the second quarter, and Arbuckle each had six points. Gavin Lambert followed with four.



Junior varsity

Jay County fell behind early and was unable to rally in a 46-32 loss to the Knights.

The Patriots trailed by nine after the opening quarter and were down by double digits at halftime. Norwell outscored them 14-8 in the third quarter and cruised to the win.

Brody Bolyn scored 13 points, including seven in the first quarter to lead the Knights. Luke Graft followed with 11.

Josh Dowlen was the only JCHS player to reach double figures as he finished with a dozen points. Trenton Alexander and Adam Muhlenkamp followed with five apiece.



Freshman

Strong play in the middle quarters lifted the Patriots to a 46-41 victory over Norwell.

Jay County trailed by one at the end of the first quarter with Brady Davis scoring nine of its 11 points. But it proceeded to outscore the Knights 25-16 over the course of the next two periods to take control.

Davis continued to score after his hot start, leading the Patriots with 23 points. Blake Bogenschutz added 12 points and Owen Ransom scored six.

Gavin Heoppner paced Norwell with 15 points. Luke Wallis was right behind him with 14.