February 3, 2023 at 6:14 p.m.
JC fights off Raiders
Victory gives the Patriots chance at ACAC share
JC fights off Raiders
PONETO — The Patriots got one senior back from injury but were without another.
They won’t be looking back at the game film as a pristine display of how they’d like to play. But they did enough to get a win.
With Blake Bogenschutz back in the fold and Dusty Pearson out, the Jay County High School boys basketball team was able to finally open a lead in the fourth quarter and held on for a 52-49 victory over the host Southern Wells Raiders.
“Here’s what we accomplished tonight,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt, “we got a win and now we have a chance to play for a conference championship. That was the objective.”
The victory moved the Patriots to 4-1 in the Allen County Athletic Conference, tied for first place with Adams Central. (Heritage is 3-1.)
Jay County, which is 6-8 overall, could earn a share of the ACAC regular-season title with a win Feb. 10 over Heritage, the team it lost to in the opening round of the conference tournament.
The performance Thursday, though, was not what the Patriots wanted.
“We came out flat again,” added Bomholt. “I think a lot of that had to do with Dusty … and then we have to make some lineup changes and it’s not our normal rotation.”
Pearson was out after tweaking his knee in practice Wednesday. Though the details of his injury and timeline for his return are unclear, Bomholt said he expects to be without the 6-foot, 6-inch forward in the game that was added to the JCHS schedule Saturday at Northeastern.
Thursday’s game was tied at the end of each of the first three quarters before the Patriots took the lead for good on a Bogenschutz hoop 18 seconds in to the final period. They pushed the advantage to 42-37, traded hoops with Southern Wells and then went up 49-41 with 17 seconds left after Ben Crouch and Josh Dowlen combined to hit three out of four free throws.
Those foul shots — JCHS was in the bonus with 5:32 remaining and went to the line 19 times in the final period — essentially sealed the game. The Raiders (4-12) pulled to within the three-point final margin when Chandler Oswalt drained a 3-pointer from half court along the left sideline as time expired.
“I just felt like other than the last two minutes of the first half, we played about as well as we could play, and I would like to see us rewarded for that,” said Southern Wells coach Joel Roush, pleased with his team’s effort but disappointed with the result. “And the reward that you get for this game is a tally in the W column.”
The other key stretch for the Patriots came in the final two minutes of the opening half.
Southern Wells (4-11, 1-4 ACAC) was up 21-14 but failed to score again before the intermission. The Patriots tallied the final seven points of the half, including a Bogenschutz fade-away from the right baseline with three seconds remaining.
The Raiders were able to pull ahead by seven again — 30-23 — early in the second half thanks to consecutive triples from Oswalt, Kedrik Sonnigsen and Jenson Nusbaumer, but were still left to lament the lead they could have had if they had finished stronger in the first half.
“We had been so good defensively the whole half,” said Roush. “We let a couple guys shake loose, we got back cut. It was just unfortunate for us to lose that lead.”
Bogenschutz, who had missed the previous two games because of a concussion, gave Jay County the offensive spark it needed. He shot 7-of-8 from inside the arc and made nine free throws for a game-high 23 points.
“We had a stretch there at the end of the first half, we were down eight. So we ran a couple sets for him,” said Bomholt. Bogenschutz had six of the Patriots’ seven points in their run to end the second quarter.
Ben Crouch followed Bogenschutz with eight points, and Abraham Dirksen, Josh Dowlen and Bennett Weitzel each scored six.
The Patriots outscored Southern Wells 20-5 at the foul line.
Junior varsity
A strong second quarter put Jay County in control on the way to a 51-32 victory over the Raiders.
An 18-point first quarter put the Patriots up by seven and their defense came through in the second period. The result was a 33-15 halftime lead that carried them through the second half to the win.
Liam Garringer powered JCHS with 19 points, including five 3-pointers. Trevin Dunnington added 14 points.
Bryar Gearheart and CJ Reber each scored 11 points for Southern Wells.
They won’t be looking back at the game film as a pristine display of how they’d like to play. But they did enough to get a win.
With Blake Bogenschutz back in the fold and Dusty Pearson out, the Jay County High School boys basketball team was able to finally open a lead in the fourth quarter and held on for a 52-49 victory over the host Southern Wells Raiders.
“Here’s what we accomplished tonight,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt, “we got a win and now we have a chance to play for a conference championship. That was the objective.”
The victory moved the Patriots to 4-1 in the Allen County Athletic Conference, tied for first place with Adams Central. (Heritage is 3-1.)
Jay County, which is 6-8 overall, could earn a share of the ACAC regular-season title with a win Feb. 10 over Heritage, the team it lost to in the opening round of the conference tournament.
The performance Thursday, though, was not what the Patriots wanted.
“We came out flat again,” added Bomholt. “I think a lot of that had to do with Dusty … and then we have to make some lineup changes and it’s not our normal rotation.”
Pearson was out after tweaking his knee in practice Wednesday. Though the details of his injury and timeline for his return are unclear, Bomholt said he expects to be without the 6-foot, 6-inch forward in the game that was added to the JCHS schedule Saturday at Northeastern.
Thursday’s game was tied at the end of each of the first three quarters before the Patriots took the lead for good on a Bogenschutz hoop 18 seconds in to the final period. They pushed the advantage to 42-37, traded hoops with Southern Wells and then went up 49-41 with 17 seconds left after Ben Crouch and Josh Dowlen combined to hit three out of four free throws.
Those foul shots — JCHS was in the bonus with 5:32 remaining and went to the line 19 times in the final period — essentially sealed the game. The Raiders (4-12) pulled to within the three-point final margin when Chandler Oswalt drained a 3-pointer from half court along the left sideline as time expired.
“I just felt like other than the last two minutes of the first half, we played about as well as we could play, and I would like to see us rewarded for that,” said Southern Wells coach Joel Roush, pleased with his team’s effort but disappointed with the result. “And the reward that you get for this game is a tally in the W column.”
The other key stretch for the Patriots came in the final two minutes of the opening half.
Southern Wells (4-11, 1-4 ACAC) was up 21-14 but failed to score again before the intermission. The Patriots tallied the final seven points of the half, including a Bogenschutz fade-away from the right baseline with three seconds remaining.
The Raiders were able to pull ahead by seven again — 30-23 — early in the second half thanks to consecutive triples from Oswalt, Kedrik Sonnigsen and Jenson Nusbaumer, but were still left to lament the lead they could have had if they had finished stronger in the first half.
“We had been so good defensively the whole half,” said Roush. “We let a couple guys shake loose, we got back cut. It was just unfortunate for us to lose that lead.”
Bogenschutz, who had missed the previous two games because of a concussion, gave Jay County the offensive spark it needed. He shot 7-of-8 from inside the arc and made nine free throws for a game-high 23 points.
“We had a stretch there at the end of the first half, we were down eight. So we ran a couple sets for him,” said Bomholt. Bogenschutz had six of the Patriots’ seven points in their run to end the second quarter.
Ben Crouch followed Bogenschutz with eight points, and Abraham Dirksen, Josh Dowlen and Bennett Weitzel each scored six.
The Patriots outscored Southern Wells 20-5 at the foul line.
Junior varsity
A strong second quarter put Jay County in control on the way to a 51-32 victory over the Raiders.
An 18-point first quarter put the Patriots up by seven and their defense came through in the second period. The result was a 33-15 halftime lead that carried them through the second half to the win.
Liam Garringer powered JCHS with 19 points, including five 3-pointers. Trevin Dunnington added 14 points.
Bryar Gearheart and CJ Reber each scored 11 points for Southern Wells.
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