July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
No. 6 Jay rallies past Rebs (12/16/06)
JCHS boys basketball
No. 6 Jay rallies past Rebs (12/16/06)
By By RAY COONEY-
After the game, a pair of Jay County students entered coach Craig Teagle's office.
They congratulated him on his victory. Then they told him about the $1,149.13 they collected from the Patriot fans in support of his wife Shelley's battle against breast cancer.
He, in turn, thanked them, first for the monetary support and next for the vocal. Without them, he said, such a victory could never happen.
It was just that kind of special night.
"Our crowd was a huge difference," said Teagle after his team turned in a stunning rally from a 10-point deficit with six minutes to play to defeat the Muncie Southside Rebels 58-53 in overtime. "Our band and our fans were so loud and gave us so much momentum. Our kids got a step quicker, it seemed like. It really translated well to the team and what we did on the floor. So, my hat's off to our crowd. Unbelievable."
Those fans would probably use the same word, "unbelievable", to describe the thrill the Class 3A No. 6 Jay County Patriots gave them.
The home team struggled for much of the game, trailing by 10 at halftime and 12 late in the third quarter. But a special team like this one can never be counted out.
Luke Goetz scored on a drive to the hoop and Rhett Retter came up with a steal and score with three seconds remaining in the third to pull Jay County (6-0) within eight. Those buckets started a 24-7 Patriot run.
Southside (2-4), which lost by just six points to defending 3A state champion New Castle last week, managed the first two points of the final period on a pair of Chad Nash foul shots. But they didn't score again in regulation.
"Our whole game plan was to take away the inside game, because that had been their strength," said Teagle. "And we did a great job. They hit some threes and a couple of them were too open, but a couple of them were just hard shots. ...
"We stayed with the plan and continued to take away their inside game," he added, saying he was impressed with the way his team contested shots. "I thought our defense was fantastic."
Corey Comer scored to get Jay County back within eight points, and the crowd erupted after a pull-up shot off the glass from Clint Muhlenkamp cut the deficit to 48-42. The fans never fell silent again.
Comer added another bucket off a Scott "Scooter" Bruggeman assist, and Billy Wellman drove the lane and rolled in a lay-up for a 48-46 score with 4:06 to go.
"Things just started to click for us," said Bruggeman, who had seven points and four assists. "We started recognizing things that we missed in the beginning of the game. We all came together and started focusing as one."
Comer, who scored a team-high 15 points, assisted on the game-tying bucket by Muhlenkamp (nine points, nine rebounds) at the 2:22 mark.
Then Jay County got the ball back again as Southside continued to miss the extra-long 3-pointer which had staked them to their lead earlier in the game.
Although Comer missed a chance to win the game on a 3-pointer at the buzzer the Rebels never stood a chance in overtime, even after they scored the first points. Jay County came right back down the floor and patiently passed the ball until Comer sent his fifth assist, also a game-high, to Wellman, who hit a 3-pointer to give the Patriots their first lead since 2-0.
Comer scored again, and Jay County got its act together from the foul line to finish it. After hitting just 2-of-8 first-half free throws and shooting none in the second half, it made 5-of-6 in the final 48 seconds of overtime. Muhlenkamp, just a 42 percent shooter form the line on the season, hit the final two with 4.3 seconds left.
Comer pointed to a short speech by Bruggeman at halftime as a big key to the comeback.
"I said that we can't give up, we've just got to believe in ourselves," said Bruggeman. "We just fought through it and stuck with it and came out on top."
"We hadn't given up and we weren't' going to," said Comer. "And we never did.
"The crowd was amazing," he added. "Momentum from the crowd, we couldn't have done it without them."
Michael Hornback had 17 points to lead Southside (2-4). Chad Nash added 12, and Jesse Gerber had 11 rebounds.[[In-content Ad]]
They congratulated him on his victory. Then they told him about the $1,149.13 they collected from the Patriot fans in support of his wife Shelley's battle against breast cancer.
He, in turn, thanked them, first for the monetary support and next for the vocal. Without them, he said, such a victory could never happen.
It was just that kind of special night.
"Our crowd was a huge difference," said Teagle after his team turned in a stunning rally from a 10-point deficit with six minutes to play to defeat the Muncie Southside Rebels 58-53 in overtime. "Our band and our fans were so loud and gave us so much momentum. Our kids got a step quicker, it seemed like. It really translated well to the team and what we did on the floor. So, my hat's off to our crowd. Unbelievable."
Those fans would probably use the same word, "unbelievable", to describe the thrill the Class 3A No. 6 Jay County Patriots gave them.
The home team struggled for much of the game, trailing by 10 at halftime and 12 late in the third quarter. But a special team like this one can never be counted out.
Luke Goetz scored on a drive to the hoop and Rhett Retter came up with a steal and score with three seconds remaining in the third to pull Jay County (6-0) within eight. Those buckets started a 24-7 Patriot run.
Southside (2-4), which lost by just six points to defending 3A state champion New Castle last week, managed the first two points of the final period on a pair of Chad Nash foul shots. But they didn't score again in regulation.
"Our whole game plan was to take away the inside game, because that had been their strength," said Teagle. "And we did a great job. They hit some threes and a couple of them were too open, but a couple of them were just hard shots. ...
"We stayed with the plan and continued to take away their inside game," he added, saying he was impressed with the way his team contested shots. "I thought our defense was fantastic."
Corey Comer scored to get Jay County back within eight points, and the crowd erupted after a pull-up shot off the glass from Clint Muhlenkamp cut the deficit to 48-42. The fans never fell silent again.
Comer added another bucket off a Scott "Scooter" Bruggeman assist, and Billy Wellman drove the lane and rolled in a lay-up for a 48-46 score with 4:06 to go.
"Things just started to click for us," said Bruggeman, who had seven points and four assists. "We started recognizing things that we missed in the beginning of the game. We all came together and started focusing as one."
Comer, who scored a team-high 15 points, assisted on the game-tying bucket by Muhlenkamp (nine points, nine rebounds) at the 2:22 mark.
Then Jay County got the ball back again as Southside continued to miss the extra-long 3-pointer which had staked them to their lead earlier in the game.
Although Comer missed a chance to win the game on a 3-pointer at the buzzer the Rebels never stood a chance in overtime, even after they scored the first points. Jay County came right back down the floor and patiently passed the ball until Comer sent his fifth assist, also a game-high, to Wellman, who hit a 3-pointer to give the Patriots their first lead since 2-0.
Comer scored again, and Jay County got its act together from the foul line to finish it. After hitting just 2-of-8 first-half free throws and shooting none in the second half, it made 5-of-6 in the final 48 seconds of overtime. Muhlenkamp, just a 42 percent shooter form the line on the season, hit the final two with 4.3 seconds left.
Comer pointed to a short speech by Bruggeman at halftime as a big key to the comeback.
"I said that we can't give up, we've just got to believe in ourselves," said Bruggeman. "We just fought through it and stuck with it and came out on top."
"We hadn't given up and we weren't' going to," said Comer. "And we never did.
"The crowd was amazing," he added. "Momentum from the crowd, we couldn't have done it without them."
Michael Hornback had 17 points to lead Southside (2-4). Chad Nash added 12, and Jesse Gerber had 11 rebounds.[[In-content Ad]]
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