Patriots come up short

With a chance to put the game out of reach, Richmond’s Christian Harvey missed a pair of free throws with half a second left.
Cole Stigleman hauled in the rebound and passed to Kyler Carvel, who launched a desperation shot from half court in an attempt to tie the game.
Carvel’s potential game-tying shot banked off the right side of the backboard as the Jay County High School boys basketball team’s rally fell short Saturday in a 44-41 loss to the Richmond Red Devils.
“Our fundamentals were horrible tonight,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team had 22 turnovers. “The first half we had a ton of one-dribble pickups. We would make blind passes. We tried to make long passes.
“Against an athletic team like this you have to shorten all passing angles. We did a terrible job of that tonight. We’re just turning the ball over way too much and it’s careless.”
First-year Richmond coach Rick Wedlow said he was fortunate to be on the winning side of the scoreboard in a game during which the biggest lead for either team was five points.
“It was an awesome game,” said Wedlow, whose Red Devil squad moves to 2-3 on the season.
“I think our pressure bothered them a little bit because we stayed on it. I think it was more of a 32-minute wear down effect versus us consistently turning them over.
“I think that may have helped because they had some good looks in the fourth quarter that they didn’t make.”
In fact, the Patriots were held to just four points in the final eight minutes, and only had one field goal during that time. Jay Houck, who finished with a dozen points, drove the lane and was fouled midway through the frame. He made the ensuing free throw to tie the score at 40.
After nearly two minutes of scoreless basketball, a Carvel 3-pointer was off the mark — Jay County (2-1) was 1-of-7 from long range — and the Red Devils nabbed a two-point lead with a bucket by Daric Clemens at the other end with 1:17 to play.
Houck split a pair of free throws to get the Patriots within one, and after a missed freebie by Richmond’s Brenden Vanlandingham the Patriots had the ball with 11.4 seconds remaining.
But, like it had on many other occasions, Jay County turned the ball over at mid court and Vandlandingham hit two free throws to give Richmond a three-point advantage with 3.4 seconds left.
“They played with a lot of momentum and our decision making tonight was really poor,” Krieg said. “I know they’re not trying to turn the basketball over. We just have to be under control. Right now we’re not under control.
Jay County trailed 9-7 after the first quarter, but had a 7-0 run to start the second thanks to a basket and a free throw from Houck and back-to-back lay-ups from Adam Dirksen.
Richmond answered with seven consecutive points when Vanlandingham got a basket and a foul shot, Trey Griffin drained two free throws and Adrian Gibson drove the lane for two points.
Gibson led all players with 23 points, and he also had a team-high seven rebounds.
Dirksen paced Jay County with 15 points and also grabbed 10 boards.
In the third quarter, Dirksen drained a pair of free throws — there were 44 shots combined from the stripe in a game that had 34 fouls — and Jason Schlosser had a reverse layup to give Jay County a 37-34 lead with 1:21 remaining. The Patriots were not able to get ahead for the rest of the game.
“Our guys fought (and) handled some adversity,” Wedlow said. In a scary moment, Richmond junior AJ Ferguson suffered a seizure midway through the second quarter that shook up a number of his teammates. Ferguson returned to the bench after halftime. “We made the shots we needed to make and at the right time. I’m proud of my guys.”
Going forward, Krieg said the Patriots have to return to basics.
“Games like this we have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball,” said Krieg, whose team hosts Delta on Friday before crossing the state line to play Fort Recovery on Saturday. “Bottom line our fundamentals were not very good this evening. The only way you can neutralize athleticism is with great fundamentals.”

Junior varsity
As a sign of things to come for the varsity tilt, Jay County had a potential game-tying shot miss the mark in a 40-38 overtime loss.
Sophomore Holton Hill hit a pair of free throws with 55 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime, but his rushed shot from just inside the 3-point line fell short as time expired.
Hill scored a dozen points for Jay County (2-1), and Max Moser added 10 points. Garrett Rodgers and Andrew Trewyn tallied seven and five points respectively.