Jay boys short again

MONROEVILLE — It happened again.

For the second time in as many games and fifth time this season, the Jay County High School boys basketball team had a rally come up short with a 50-44 loss to the host Heritage Patriots on Friday.

“Same old song,” JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt told WPGW following the game. “Dig a hole, come back (and) come up short.”

The setback dropped Jay County to 5-7 on the season and they end 3-3 in Allen County Athletic Conference play. Heritage, led by 2009 JCHS graduate Adam Gray, improved to 9-7 on the year with a flawless 6-0 ACAC record to claim the conference title.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Gray said. “Jay County has gotten so much better over the course of the season. They are just so hard to play against and they’re going to be really, really good for years to come.”

Three-pointers helped the host Patriots build a 36-21 lead late in the third quarter before the visitors mounted their comeback yet again. Jay County started the final period on a 9-3 run, and slowly started to chip away.

Jay County, which travels to Delta tonight, had pulled within three, 47-44 with less than 17 seconds to play, but Heritage made 3-of-4 from the free-throw line to put the visitors away.

“They’re tough to play against, but our kids, we tried to give it away in the fourth quarter, son of a gun,” Gray said.

Jay County trailed by 14 in the first half on Tuesday and nearly tied the score in a 64-61 loss to South Adams. It also had double-digit deficits in losses to New Castle, Yorktown and Northeastern before making charges after halftime.

Jay County went 14-of-18 from the stripe. Ethan Dirksen (4-of-7) and Dusty Pearson (4-of-5) led the charge from the line, especially during the fourth quarter as JCHS was 10-of-13 during the final eight minutes.

After falling behind 11-4 in the first quarter, Jay County rallied to tie the score at 13 in the second. Pearson led the JCHS charge by scoring five points in that run, while Crosby Heniser (three points) and Dirksen (two) also contributed in the 9-2 spurt.

Heritage, however, scored the next 10 points that spanned halftime, and later scored 11 in a row for their 15-point lead.

Pearson led the visiting Patriots with 13 points, and Dirksen was second with 11 points.

Kiel Eldridge and Luke Saylor led Heritage with 12 points each.



Junior varsity

Jay County scored 14 straight points in the second half on its way to a 51-49 victory over Heritage.

It was the seventh consecutive win for Jay County (7-5).

Blake Bogenschutz, who led all players with 24 points, hit a pair of free throws to put the visiting Patriots on top, 45-44. He then came up with a steal and a layup for a 47-44 advantage and Jay County, which trailed 41-31 at the end of the third quarter, never trailed again.

Trent Alexander scored 11 points in support of Bogenschutz, and Brady Davis contributed seven points.



Freshman

Parker Nichols scored in double figures in leading Jay County to a 41-32 win.

Nichols put in 17 points to lead the visiting Patriots, who moved to 11-2 on the season.

Abraham Dirksen followed with six points, and Trevin Dunnington was third on the squad with six points.