Hard to stop

The Patriots were set to go against the highest individual scorer they’ve faced so far this season in Isaac Andrews, who averages 25.1 points per game.

The senior proved that statistic was no fluke, matching his season average in a dominant victory.

Andrews delivered Raiders fans a gift of 25 points for Class 2A No. 1 Wapahani as it smoked the Jay County High School boys basketball team 59-24 Saturday.

“We cut it to (11) at the beginning of the second half, and I thought we needed about two more stops and scores but then (Andrews) went crazy,” JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt said. “He’s a good player. He can shoot it off the dribble, he can do a lot of things.

“He’s not the best athlete we’ve played against, but he’s probably the best basketball player we’ve played against.”

Jay County (2-5) opened the third quarter with Gradin Swoveland splitting a pair of free throws to cap off its longest run of the game of six straight points.

Wapahani (9-0) completely took over the game from there, scoring 16 points in a row as the Patriots went dry for four and a half minutes.

During that stretch, Andrews scored nine points, all on 3-pointers, and assisted on the final bucket by Camden Bell.

“We’re moving the ball and we’re very unselfish,” Wapahani coach Matt Luce said. “We have great leadership and great kids.

“When those guys make threes like that, especially Andrews … it’s not surprising.”

The Raiders shot a 41.4% clip from beyond the arc, hitting 12 of 29 threes. Andrews led the way with six triples while Nate Luce and Bell hit two apiece.

Eight of the buckets came from assists, but four of the Raiders threes, including three from Isaacs, were shots that were taken at the top of the key off the dribble while the Patriots 1-2-2 zone was inside of the arc.

Both teams struggled with turnovers early in the game. In the first quarter, the Raiders turned over the ball five times, but the Raiders settled down after the rough start, only committing five turnovers over the final three periods.

“We don’t turn the ball over,” Luce said. “We’ve actually had a game where we had zero turnovers, so five in a quarter is a lot. Our guys are smart and very mature. They found a way at halftime to gather themselves and just improve and that was obvious.”

The Patriots struggled with turnovers all throughout the game, finishing with 21.

Jay County mixed up its lineup and the amount of minutes for those in the rotation, forcing new combinations of players that haven’t spent a lot of time on the floor together.

The shakeup saw Ben Crouch, Levi Muhlenkamp and freshman Jayden Comer moved into the starting lineup while Liam Garringer, Trevin Dunnington and Parker Nichols were on the bench until the second or third quarter. Others who saw more minutes that they typically had through the first six games were Cole Forthofer, Carter Fugiett and Aiden Phillips.

“What we decided is to just put things up for grabs,” Bomholt said. “The guys, that through practice this past week, those guys that started earned those spots.

“Yet what we found out — and we kind of knew it was coming — the young guys don’t understand the intensity level that you have to have, especially against a team like this.”

Garringer, the team’s No. 2 scorer coming into the game, provided an offensive spark when he entered the game for the first time with 3:02 left in the first half. He hit a 3-pointer to get Jay County into double digits and added a steal and layup 20 seconds later.

“I was just trying to help the team win,” Garringer said. “He just wasn’t looking so I stole it and went down.”

But overall, offense remained a struggle throughout for the Patriots as Swoveland’s nine points led the way while Garringer followed with six.

Jay County has lost four in a row, including consecutive games against ranked opponents — Class 3A No. 4 Delta (7-1) and Class 2A No. 1 Wapahani (9-0). The Patriots’ last win came Dec. 1 against Woodlan.

“I think it's important that we don't give up on these kids because we are trying different lineups and different combinations,” Bomholt said. “Right now it’s tough for them because those last three opponents (Wapahani, Delta and New Castle) every year are tough to beat. Unfortunately for us we got them in the midst of where we aren’t playing as well as we think we can play.

“Maybe we have too high of expectations. I still believe in my heart that we can find a group of kids that can play at a high level. We're going to continue to try that best we can.”

Junior varsity

Although the Patriots only scored one point in the second quarter, a strong second half lifted them to a 40-24 victory over Wapahani.

Eli Dirksen led Jay County (5-2) with 12 points, seven of which came in the second half.

Drew Schemenaur, Fugiett and Forthofer all hit to shots to score four or more points in the final period where the Patriots outscored the Raiders 17-4.

Brock Zickgraff was the only player from Wapahani to hit more than one shot. He nailed four threes in route to 14 points.