360 slammed

The Indiana Pacers Power Pack performed a high-flying dunk routine in between Saturday’s junior varsity and varsity games.

When the trampolines and padded mats were put away, the Red Devils picked up where the men in navy blue and gold left off.

Richmond opened the game with an alley-oop dunk, got a 360 slam in the midst of a 20-point run and rolled over the Jay County High School boys basketball team 61-20 in its home opener.

It was the Patriots’ worst loss since falling 91-31 to Merrillville in the Huntington North Holiday Tournament on Dec. 28, 2019.

“They’re pretty good,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt. “But we’re up 5-2, and I think it went (37-4 the rest of the half). I mean, it was unbelievable.

“We can’t simulate their quickness. But we did so many things wrong fundamentally, that the outcome unfortunately was determined pretty quickly.”

He referenced failures to meet passes, picking the ball up in corners and attempting to dribble through double teams.

“Everything that we said, ‘We can’t do that tonight,’ we did it,” Bomholt added.

After the performance by the Power Pack, a group of high energy dunkers, Mason Carpenter of the Red Devils took the ball on the opening possession and lofted a pass toward the basket. Cedric Horton cut along the left baseline, caught the pass in mid-air and slammed the ball through the hoop.

“We had that ready to go,” said Richmond coach Billy Wright. “It’s kind of one of those deals where it’s in our back pocket. If it’s there, the kids know to take it. If it’s not, it flows into something else.”

The Patriots (1-1) responded to take a 5-2 lead on a basket by Wesley Bihn and a 3-pointer from Liam Garringer. But they did not score again for more than eight minutes as Richmond took control.

The run by the Red Devils (1-0) included the 360 dunk from Horton that led to Jay County’s first time out. The break did nothing to slow them down. Patriot turnovers on back-to-back possessions led to Richmond hoops and another timeout by Bomholt just 30 seconds later.

It was 17-5 by the end of the first quarter, and Horton hit a 3-pointer and a basket off of a Deante Smith assist to open the second and push the lead to 17 points. Horton went on to lead Richmond with 18 points as he hit on five of his six tries from inside the arc and added two triples.

“Ced does a great job letting the game come to him,” said Wright. “We got him going early with that back-door lob. And that just kind of energized us from the very beginning.”

Carpenter and Julien Smith each drained three 3-pointers to follow with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Gradin Swoveland finally ended Jay County’s scoreless streak when he split a pair of free throws at the 6:08 mark. But it took another 8:10 before the home time finally hit another field goal — it went more than 16 minutes without a hoop — when Trevin Dunnington scored with 5:58 on the third-quarter clock.

The Patriots shot 2-of-15 from the field with 14 turnovers in the first half and trailed by 30. By the mid-point of the third quarter, the running clock was on. Richmond pushed its lead to 40 with eight minutes to go and was up by as many as 45 before Cole Forthofer and Eli Dirksen scored the final four points of the game.

JCHS, which was led by Bihn’s six points, hit for just 21.8% from the field for the game while the Red Devils made 60% of their two-point attempts and added nine 3-pointers. Richmond also dominated the glass, 35-23.

“We’ve got to get back to work,” said Bomholt, whose team will open Allen County Athletic Conference play Friday against Woodlan before visiting Fort Recovery on Saturday. “We can hang our heads and put our tail between our legs and feel sorry about ourselves or we can get back to work.”

Junior varsity

Jay County built an early lead, let it slip away and then took control again in the final seven minutes for a 42-31 victory.

The Patriots outscored Richmond 12-4 in the opening period and were up by 10 at the intermission. The Red Devils closed the gap to one after three quarters before JCHS poured in 17 fourth-quarter points to put the game away.

Levi Muhlenkamp’s 12 points led the way for the Patriots. Cole Forthofer scored all of his 10 points in the second half while Aiden Phillips had all of his eight in the first half.

Quenten Lopeman’s eight points were the team-high for Richmond. Treston Bennet and Lucas Durbin each had six points.