Strong response

Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Patriots on Friday night.

They couldn’t find any offensive rhythm, they got torched by Trey Yoder and when Woodlan did miss a shot, they couldn’t pull in the rebound.

The next day was a different story.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team bounced back from its 16-point loss on Friday by beating the Fort Recovery Indians 64-59 on Saturday.

“I thought they responded really well,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt. “We had a good walk-through this morning. I think they were very attentive.

“It’s one game. I want to see this six or seven games in a row. If we see that then we can say we arrived, at least a little bit. Right now, we’re not even in the door, but it was a lot better. It was the best performance of the four games, no question.”

The win pulled the Patriots’ record to an even 2-2 with a win at home against Elwood and losses on the road to Richmond and Woodlan.

On the other hand, the game was the season opener for the Indians. While Fort Recovery couldn’t pull off its third consecutive victory against the Patriots, coach Bob Leverette liked what he saw in the opener.

“It was a gritty performance, didn’t quit, proud of the kids but just needed to hit some shots down the stretch,” Leverette said. “But happy with our effort. … A big game and going against that 1-2-2 with their length, that’s a tough matchup to play your first game in. But I’m really happy with our kids’ performance.”

The first half was played close with seven lead changes. Fort Recovery owned the largest lead of the half at eight points after Colson Post hit a three and Grant Fortkamp scored off of a steal in the backcourt to open the second quarter.

Trailing 21-13, Bomholt called a timeout to try and get his team back on track. Shortly after, Gradin Swoveland — who finished as the game’s leading scorer with 19 points — hit a pull up jumper to start chipping into the lead. On the next play, Swoveland stole the ball away and raced down to the other end of the floor for a dunk that got the crowd involved in the game.

“Everyone gets pumped about a dunk, I mean that’s just basketball,” said Swoveland, who bounced back after only scoring eight points on three field goals against Woodlan. “With them having the lead, I think that just switched the momentum and it gave us the energy to take the lead back and not give it up.”

The Tribe called their first timeout following the slam, but JCHS tied the game at 21 with back-to-back buckets by Aiden Phillips.

A 3-pointer from Braylon Dilworth and a free throw by Breaker Jutte reclaimed the lead for FRHS, but it flipped back to Jay County before the intermission as Tucker Griffin put home a three assisted by Swoveland and scored on a drive.

Jay County established an advantage in the third quarter, outsourcing the Indians 19-11. The Patriots hit 9-of-10 shots in the quarter, including three shots from Cole Forthofer, while only turning the ball over four times.

Fort Recovery started to make a comeback, hitting four threes, five free throws and getting six points inside the paint from Jutte, but they couldn’t slow down the Patriots enough. 

Despite only giving up one field goal — a Griffin 3-pointer — Fort Recovery’s comeback came up short due to strong free throw shooting. The Patriots went 16-of-21 at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“When you have that lead, what you want to do is get the floor spread, look for the ball to be in the hands of your three guards,” Bomholt said. “For us, that’s the three guys, over the years, that have been the best free throw shooters. The three of them collectively hit 15 out of 16. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty close.”

Both teams also got some strong production from a sophomore forward. Jutte put up a solid game for the Indians with a team-high 16 points, while pulling down six rebounds and blocking two shots. Eli Petro provided a little spark for the Patriots, scoring nine points in his first start.

JCHS will have a full week to prepare for its next game against sectional-rival New Castle, while the Tribe will travel to Fort Loramie later today.

“That’s the score we wanted, but we wanted to be on the other end of it,” Leverett said. “We’ll get back after it on Tuesday and we won’t have to face that 1-2-2 with all that length. … We’re just getting our legs under us. We’ll go to Fort Loramie on Tuesday. They’ll be very physical but they’ll play a man defense and I think that will benefit us a little bit more.”