Unfazed Jay tops Braves (12/03/05)

DECATUR — There was no panic from the visiting bench, despite a dominant first half by the home-standing Bellmont Braves.

And there was no despair, even after Taylor Terveer rattled in a 50-foot 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to push the advantage back to 10 points.

Instead, the Jay County Patriots scored more points in the fourth quarter than Bellmont did in the entire second half for a tremendous 70-64 victory.

“It was a great win,” said senior John Retter, “a good team effort.”

“We played with confidence,” said coach Craig Teagle, whose team won at Bellmont for the first time in his tenure at JCHS. “All summer this is what I saw from this team — get down, don’t let it affect you; keep playing hard, you’ll get back in the game.”

Jay County (2-0) fought hard in the third quarter, pulling to within seven points twice after trailing by 13 at the half. But Terveer’s long 3-pointer from beyond half-court on the right side at the third-quarter buzzer could have deflated the Patriots.

Instead, after giving up the first hoop of the final period, Jay County outscored the host Braves 28-10 the rest of the way.

Zac Green, who finished with a career-high 16 points, hit a 3-pointer to tie the game for the first time with 2:16 remaining. Exactly one minute later Randy Evans picked up a loose ball after a long scramble and flipped it to Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman, who buried another 3-pointer for a 63-60 Patriot lead.

Bruggeman made a couple of free throws with 55 seconds left to push the Jay County lead to five, and the visiting team made seven of its final eight free throws to put the Braves away.

Teagle said he tried to keep his team going in a positive direction in the huddle between quarters after watching Terveer sink his long trifecta.

He told the Patriots: “‘Hey, the sun shines on other people every once in a while. The sun shined on them for three quarters, so in the fourth quarter maybe it’ll shine on us.’ And it did.

“All the loose balls in the third quarter that we were deflecting, we didn’t get to. In the fourth, we got to those balls.”

Green and Retter were part of a tremendous team effort by the Patriots, who ruled the fourth quarter after falling behind big in the first.

Green hit all three of his 3-point attempts, with 11 points of his career-high total coming after the intermission.

Retter led a dominant effort on the glass, grabbing just four fewer rebounds than the entire Bellmont squad. He finished with 14 boards, nine of which came in the second half, and also scored 10 points.

“They’ve both improved immensely,” said Teagle. “Zac’s just worked at it so hard for four years. He’s always coming in early, working on his shot, working on his ball handling. ... He’s the type of kid who’ll do whatever the team needs.

“And John Retter’s just a battler. That’s just how he plays.”

Corey Comer matched Green with 16 points, hitting both of his 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter. He added nine rebounds to aide Retter in leading Jay County’s 35-18 rebounding advantage, and dished out three assists.

Tyler Rigby and Randy Evans each added eight points, and Bruggeman and Clint Muhlenkamp had six apiece. Bruggeman also had four assists.

“They just kept coming and coming and coming,” said first-year Bellmont coach Flava Sirg. “Our kids just have to learn that good teams do that. Obviously Jay County’s a good team.”

Sirg’s squad looked outstanding early, rolling out to leads of 8-0 and 13-3 thanks to incredible first-half shooting. The Braves hit 61 percent of their first-half shots, including 7-of-12 3-pointers, but went just 7-of-21 from the field after the intermission.

“We just said that we wanted to contest better,” said Green. “We didn’t contest very well in the first half. We started doing that and it worked out for us.”

Ryan Lehrman finished with a game-high 17 points, but missed each of his first six free-throw attempts before finally hitting a pair with 24 seconds remaining. He also grabbed 10 rebounds, but no other Brave had more than two boards.

Terveer hit four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Kraig Miller had 13 points, and Justin Hall scored 10.

Junior varsity

The Patriots trailed by nine with a period to play, but came roaring back for a 42-41 victory over Bellmont.

Rhett Retter finally gave Jay County the lead at 40-39 when he scored with 40 seconds remaining.

Gus Ranly missed a free throw on the other end, and Retter buried a pair of free throws with 12.7 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

Retter finished with a game-high 14 points, and Adam Garringer joined him in double figures with 10 points. Lance Franklin, C.J. Comer and Casey Waters each added six points.

Alex Ainsworth paced Bellmont with 13 points. Nathan Herman followed with nine points, and Derek Egley scored seven.

Freshman

After leading by as many as 11 points, Jay County had to fight off the Braves for a 41-39 win.

The Patriots trailed by six after the opening period, but outscored Bellmont 25-10 in the second and third quarters to take command. They gave up 15 fourth-quarter points, but were able to hold on.

Cole Ingram and Dexter Shreve each reached double figures for the Patriots with 13 and 12 points respectively. Phil Powell added six points.

Ethan Brege was the to scorer for Bellmont with 15 points.[[In-content Ad]]