Falcons fly by Jay in third

Payton Sparks wreaked havoc in the first half, especially the second quarter.

The Patriots couldn’t handle the three-point shooting in the third.

Sparks scored 13 of his game-high 21 points during the first half, and the Winchester Golden?Falcons used a 18-0 run during the third quarter to hand the Jay County High School boys basketball team a 61-41 loss in the final home game of the year for the Patriots.

“This happened the last two games before this one, when teams get up into us we can’t handle the physicality of the basketball game,” said JCHS?coach Chris Krieg, whose team closes the regular season?Friday at Bellmont. “The kids just got to be mentally tough, fight through it and keep playing hard.”

Sparks, a 6-foot, 8-inch junior, was too much to handle for Jay County (6-15). The Patriots weren’t able to stop his post moves from the left block, and as a result Noah Arbuckle sat the bench with two fouls. Sparks bodied up the Patriots and scored 11 points in the second quarter alone, going 5-for-6 from the paint in that stretch.

“He got us in foul trouble right away,” Krieg said. There were 39 total fouls called on the night. “When my three bigs are in foul trouble, obviously we’re going to struggle.”

Despite Sparks being dominant in the paint, the Patriots went into halftime only down by four, 28-24. Jay County later closed to within two, 33-31, less than two minutes into the third quarter, but then Winchester pulled away with 18 straight points. Nathaniel Dunica started the run with a basket, then Sparks swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Sparks converted an old-fashioned three-point play before consecutive 3-pointers from Brooks Burelison pushed the score to 47-31.

It was 51-31 before Jay County stopped the run.

“What really killed us was the third quarter,” Krieg said. “We panicked under pressure. I’m disappointed in our kids for that because at this stage of the game, you shouldn’t be panicking under anything.

“You should just play.”

Brayden Sprunger led Jay County with 13 points, including a 6-for-8 effort from the stripe in the second quarter. Ethan Dirksen followed with 10 points, and he had his streak of consecutive free throws come to an end at 21 in a row with a miss in the fourth quarter.