Starfires stifle Patriots, win 64-61

BERNE — The Starfires put the Patriots in a big hole during the first half.

Allowing nine 3-pointers on 15 shots will certainly help build a 14-point deficit.

The Patriots pulled within two points late, but couldn't tie the score. Then a potential game-tying shot went off the front of the rim.

Jay County High School’s boys basketball team failed to claw back yet again with a 64-61 loss to the South Adams Starfires on Tuesday at Stardome.

“It’s happening over and over again,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt, whose team has lost back-to-back games and had its shot at an Allen County Athletic Conference championship slip away with the loss. “Is that what we come here for? We dig a hole, we come back, we lose a close game and then we’re satisfied? Because that’s what losers do. We’re not losers. This group of kids, they’re not losers.

“They’re gonna be winners. We just haven’t figured it out.”

South Adams coach Josh Hendrixson said his team was fortunate to escape with the win.

“Start of the second half, I thought we started to do some things uncharacteristically,” he said. “We were going too fast. We weren’t getting ball reversals. We were trying to force passes into spots we necessarily could not force them into, honestly.

“Maybe some passes that we didn’t need to make, some drives into traffic that were ill advised. It was nice to be able to hang on and get the win. I don’t want every game to be like that. I probably won’t live too long if every game is quite like that.”

South Adams, which was hot from the perimeter in the first half, including Aidan Wanner going 5-of-6 from the arc, fell flat with turnovers on three of its first five possessions in the third quarter. Down 41-31 after halftime, Jay County (5-6, 3-2 ACAC) went on a 9-1 run and pulled within two.

South Adams (11-5, 2-1 ACAC) pushed the margin back up to 10, 58-48, midway through the fourth quarter.

Dusty Pearson scored eight straight Patriot points, including back-to-back 3-pointers from the corner in front of his team’s bench, to help Jay County get back within striking distance, 61-59, with 1:40 to play.

Down two again, 63-61, with less than 30 ticks left on the clock, Ethan Dirksen assisted on a Quinn Faulkner bucket in the final minute. The Starfires gave the Patriots the ball back with 21.6 seconds to go when Aidan Wanner was called for traveling at midcourt.

As the Patriots had a chance to tie the score or take the lead on the next possession, Dirksen turned the ball over. Wanner split a pair of free throws to make it 64-61, and Gavin Muhlenkamp’s potential game-tying 3-pointer just before the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

“How many possessions down the stretch there did we have the ball, we’re coming from behind, we didn’t get a shot off?” Bomholt asked. “We turn it over. You can’t come from behind if you don’t even get shots off.

“We battle, battle, battle … all those little things are adding up. We’re coming close but we just haven’t figured it out yet.”

Wanner caught fire from the perimeter in the first quarter, making all four of his shots from beyond the arc. He was 5-of-9 from distance for the game, leading the Starfires’ charge of making 11 of their 23 shots from long range.

“Aidan is one of those guys, he gets going and he absolutely can go off,” Hendrixson said of Wanner, who finished with a game-high 23 points. “He can score on you in bunches. He starts to feel good on his jump shot, which he has been feeling good with it for quite a while.

“Aidan is really feeling good with that jump shot and when he gets that thing rolling it’s hard to stop. He’ll just keep on taking another step out if they’re just not going to guard him.”

Drew Stutzman and James Arnold each had 12 points for South Adams, and all of Stutzman’s points were threes.

Dirksen led the Patriots with 20 points, and Pearson had a career-high 18 points.



Junior varsity

Jay County overtook South Adams in the third quarter to get its sixth consecutive win, 44-36.

The Patriots trailed by two at the end of the first quarter and was down 20-19 at the first half. A 13-9 margin in the third quarter helped Jay County (6-5) get the lead and they pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Blake Bogenschutz led the Patriots with 17 points and Brady Davis contributed 16 points.

Jordan Hinshaw of South Adams led all players with 23 points, including five threes.



Freshman

Jay County had three players score in double figures of a 42-27 victory.

Sam Myers scored 10 points in the second half on his way to a game-high 14 points. Parker Nichols was second with 13 points, and Wes Bihn finished with a dozen points.