Patriots close half, top Raiders

BLUFFTON — The Patriots didn’t close out the first half very well in the tournament opener on Tuesday.

Such was not the case in the consolation game Saturday.

Strong second and fourth quarters gave the Jay County High School boys basketball team a 54-40 victory over Southern Wells in the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament consolation game Saturday at Bluffton.

Jay County (7-5) led Southern Wells (7-5) 9-7 after the first quarter before a 16-11 margin in the second gave the Patriots a 25-18 advantage at the break.

Both teams scored 13 points in the third quarter before JCHS had another 16-point effort in the fourth quarter while keeping the Raiders to just nine points.

Jay Houck led all players with 19 points, inching himself closer to the 1,000-point plateau. The senior now sits at 981 career points.

Cole Stigleman followed with a dozen points, and Jason Schlosser reached double figures with 10 points. Schlosser hauled in a team-high seven rebounds and Houck had six. Ryan Schlechty tallied five assists.

Jay County travels to South Adams on Friday and meets Southern Wells again Saturday in Poneto.