December 5, 2021 at 5:39 a.m.
State-line sweep
Second-quarter run gives Patriot boys a lead and they held on late to beat Indians 51-47
State-line sweep
FORT RECOVERY — The Indians were firing on all cylinders early on.
They were hitting from deep. They were getting stops on defense. They looked primed to run past the Patriots.
But they blew a gasket or two in the second quarter, and once the visitors got out front just before halftime they held the lead the rest of the way.
The Jay County High School boys basketball team closed the first half on an 11-0 run and held on down the stretch for a 51-47 victory against the Fort Recovery Indians on Saturday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
“It was a great effort on our part,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt, whose team has started 4-0 on the season for the first time since 2014-15. “We’ve got to hope at least sooner or later, if we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, keep going out and getting a hand up, they’d cool off. And they did.”
“Once we got ourselves back in the game, the last four or five minutes we did enough to win the game but we did enough to almost lose it.”
Fort Recovery (1-1), which had one of its top scorers miss time in the first half with an ankle injury and later had their top two offensive players foul out, pulled within one possession in the final minute but came up just short.
“We battled through a little adversity there,” said FRHS interim coach Bob Leverette, who is taking the helm for Jim Melton as he battles health issues. “We just didn’t quit. A team like that you can’t get down, you just flat out can’t get down by more than 10 points because they’re going to take the air out of the ball.
“They’re going to be disciplined and that’s exactly what they were.”
Down 23-14 with 5:31 to play in the second quarter, Jay County worked its way back in the game by ending the first half on the longest run for either team.
Dusty Pearson, who a night earlier had a career-high 19 points, hit a jumper from the right baseline to make it 23-16, and the next time down the court Ethan Dirksen put in a left-handed bucket to get the Patriots rolling.
Dirksen sank two free throws to get JCHS within one possession, and at the 2:55 mark Blake Bogenschutz drained his only bucket of the night, a game-tying 3-pointer from the right wing to even the score at 23 apiece.
Gavin Muhlenkamp capped the run with two more free throws at 1:58 for Jay County’s first lead, 25-23, a margin it took into intermission.
“Kids showed a lot of character, a lot of resolve to work their way back into it because they came out like a house of fire firing up threes,” Bomholt said, alluding to the Tribe’s five made 3-pointers in the first quarter. “All in all we just buckled down.”
Said Leverette of the second quarter: “They started getting some stops. Hats off to them. I don't really know what to say — there is no magic answer to this — their dudes showed up and played.”
Fort Recovery tied the score twice early in the second half but wasn’t able to take the lead.
Three Dirksen points in the fourth quarter and two from Muhlenkcamp kicked off an 8-2 run for the Patriots, who led 44-36 with 2:30 to go before a Daniel Patch triple took it back to two possessions.
Cale Rammel, who eventually fouled out with 17 points and tweaked his ankle in the first quarter, drained his fifth and final 3-pointer with 53.5 ticks remaining to trim the deficit to 46-43. Indians weren’t able to get any closer though despite Jay County going 11-of-20 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Dirksen finished with a game-high 20 points, his second such game this season. Pearson was second with 12 points, including two crucial treys in the third quarter.
Fort Recovery’s hot shooting in the first half came on the backs of Owen Jutte and Rammel. Each hit triples to begin the night for the Tribe, and at one point Rammel had made his first three shots from long distance.
Together, the returning All-Midwest Athletic Conference players were 5-of-8 from the arc in the first quarter as their combined 19 points in the period helped stake the Tribe to a 21-8 advantage.
Jutte ended his night with 16 points before he picked up his fifth foul with less than three minutes to play.
“Early on we came out and had some good momentum,” Leverette said. “They took that away from us in the second quarter and from there on out it was a dogfight.”
Junior varsity
Fort Recovery never trailed in downing Jay County 40-17.
The Indians (2-0) were on top 8-5 at the end of the first quarter and added one to the margin at halftime, 13-9.
The Tribe outscored Jay County 18-2 in the third quarter to lead 31-11 with one period to play.
Fort Recovery’s Reece Guggenbiller and Jay County’s Liam Garringer led their respective teams with 11 points apiece.
Rex Leverette complemented Guggenbiller with his nine-point effort. Troy Homan and Alex Dues had five and four points, respectively, for the Indians.
Parker Nichols and Trevin Dunnington had two points each for Jay County.
They were hitting from deep. They were getting stops on defense. They looked primed to run past the Patriots.
But they blew a gasket or two in the second quarter, and once the visitors got out front just before halftime they held the lead the rest of the way.
The Jay County High School boys basketball team closed the first half on an 11-0 run and held on down the stretch for a 51-47 victory against the Fort Recovery Indians on Saturday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
“It was a great effort on our part,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt, whose team has started 4-0 on the season for the first time since 2014-15. “We’ve got to hope at least sooner or later, if we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, keep going out and getting a hand up, they’d cool off. And they did.”
“Once we got ourselves back in the game, the last four or five minutes we did enough to win the game but we did enough to almost lose it.”
Fort Recovery (1-1), which had one of its top scorers miss time in the first half with an ankle injury and later had their top two offensive players foul out, pulled within one possession in the final minute but came up just short.
“We battled through a little adversity there,” said FRHS interim coach Bob Leverette, who is taking the helm for Jim Melton as he battles health issues. “We just didn’t quit. A team like that you can’t get down, you just flat out can’t get down by more than 10 points because they’re going to take the air out of the ball.
“They’re going to be disciplined and that’s exactly what they were.”
Down 23-14 with 5:31 to play in the second quarter, Jay County worked its way back in the game by ending the first half on the longest run for either team.
Dusty Pearson, who a night earlier had a career-high 19 points, hit a jumper from the right baseline to make it 23-16, and the next time down the court Ethan Dirksen put in a left-handed bucket to get the Patriots rolling.
Dirksen sank two free throws to get JCHS within one possession, and at the 2:55 mark Blake Bogenschutz drained his only bucket of the night, a game-tying 3-pointer from the right wing to even the score at 23 apiece.
Gavin Muhlenkamp capped the run with two more free throws at 1:58 for Jay County’s first lead, 25-23, a margin it took into intermission.
“Kids showed a lot of character, a lot of resolve to work their way back into it because they came out like a house of fire firing up threes,” Bomholt said, alluding to the Tribe’s five made 3-pointers in the first quarter. “All in all we just buckled down.”
Said Leverette of the second quarter: “They started getting some stops. Hats off to them. I don't really know what to say — there is no magic answer to this — their dudes showed up and played.”
Fort Recovery tied the score twice early in the second half but wasn’t able to take the lead.
Three Dirksen points in the fourth quarter and two from Muhlenkcamp kicked off an 8-2 run for the Patriots, who led 44-36 with 2:30 to go before a Daniel Patch triple took it back to two possessions.
Cale Rammel, who eventually fouled out with 17 points and tweaked his ankle in the first quarter, drained his fifth and final 3-pointer with 53.5 ticks remaining to trim the deficit to 46-43. Indians weren’t able to get any closer though despite Jay County going 11-of-20 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Dirksen finished with a game-high 20 points, his second such game this season. Pearson was second with 12 points, including two crucial treys in the third quarter.
Fort Recovery’s hot shooting in the first half came on the backs of Owen Jutte and Rammel. Each hit triples to begin the night for the Tribe, and at one point Rammel had made his first three shots from long distance.
Together, the returning All-Midwest Athletic Conference players were 5-of-8 from the arc in the first quarter as their combined 19 points in the period helped stake the Tribe to a 21-8 advantage.
Jutte ended his night with 16 points before he picked up his fifth foul with less than three minutes to play.
“Early on we came out and had some good momentum,” Leverette said. “They took that away from us in the second quarter and from there on out it was a dogfight.”
Junior varsity
Fort Recovery never trailed in downing Jay County 40-17.
The Indians (2-0) were on top 8-5 at the end of the first quarter and added one to the margin at halftime, 13-9.
The Tribe outscored Jay County 18-2 in the third quarter to lead 31-11 with one period to play.
Fort Recovery’s Reece Guggenbiller and Jay County’s Liam Garringer led their respective teams with 11 points apiece.
Rex Leverette complemented Guggenbiller with his nine-point effort. Troy Homan and Alex Dues had five and four points, respectively, for the Indians.
Parker Nichols and Trevin Dunnington had two points each for Jay County.
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