JCHS earns OAC victory

CONNERSVILLE - Trailing by 16 on the road with their leading scorer out because of a back injury, the Patriots knew they had to do something different.

So, the team that generally has favored a slow pace and low possession games decided to play against type.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team turned up the tempo in the second half and earned a 46-44 Olympic Athletic Conference victory Friday on a Dillon Ainsworth buzzer-beater in overtime.

The game marked the third time in four seasons the OAC rivals have gone to an extra session.

"We told the kids, two years ago it started us on a 14-game win streak," said JCHS coach Craig Teagle, whose team is now 6-3 and 1-1 in the conference. "You've got to win the first one to start a streak. We'd lost three in a row, and to go on the road and come back from down 16 at halftime, it's a big win for the kids."

With senior Eric Homan out for the game because of a back injury, Teagle said he felt like what was left of his relatively inexperienced squad was playing timid in the first half. JCHS shot just 3-of-12 (25 percent) and managed only two second-quarter points as they trailed 23-7.

In the second half the Patriots brought full-court pressure and closed the gap to 10 points at the close of the third quarter. They continued to rally in the fourth and even had two chances to win the game in regulation, but shots from Garrett Krieg and Brad Horn were off the mark.

Neither team had scored in overtime as Jay County held for the last shot, with Teagle taking a timeout with 28 seconds remaining. The Patriots ran their "overload" play, eventually working the ball around to senior Brad Horn. He drove toward the basket and drew the defense toward him before dumping the ball to Ainsworth, who connected on his only field goal of the game as time expired.

"We played back on our heels in the first half," said Teagle. "We just didn't click offensively. We played a little timid.

"We started full-court pressing and started attacking more on offense. We just got them to turn the ball over quite a bit."

A pair of freshmen carried the scoring load for the Patriots, with Kegan Comer and Brock McFarland each scoring 12 points. All of those came in the second half.

"A lot of (Comer's) were on transition and attacking the rim," said Teagle. "He was attacking the rim and getting fouled, and then he got a couple lay-ups too."

Horn was next with six points, Krieg scored five and Adam Daniels added four.

Zach Miller led Connersville (4-6, 0-1 OAC) with 20 points. Zach Hufferd followed with 13.

Junior varsity

The Patriots rallied back from a double-digit, third-quarter deficit, but could not quite pull out a victory as they fell 28-27 to Connersville.

Drew Houck scored 14 points to lead Jay County, which trailed 24-11 with 3:39 left in the third quarter. Cade Price added eight points.[[In-content Ad]]