Phillips in the final seconds

Just as Gradin Swoveland breathed some life into the crowd, Caleb Hummel quieted the Patriot faithful.

The game was set up for overtime.

Parker Nichols and Aiden Phillips wouldn’t have it.

Nichols and Phillips connected with seconds left to score the winning bucket for the Jay County High School basketball team in its 47-45 victory over the Winchester Golden Falcons on Tuesday.

“I told them at halftime, ‘If we have heart, and if you really believe in what we’re trying to do, we’ll win this game,’” JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt said. “The play at the end, we weren’t going to call time out and the kids know that. They know to push it, take it as far as you can, if you’ve got the shot, take the shot and if not look for somebody open. Parker did a great job of finding Phillips for a layup.

“We hadn’t done a great job of that when we’ve called things before.”

With the game tied and only 10 seconds left, the Patriots (8-12) had to act quickly to avoid overtime. Nichols received the inbound pass and immediately pushed up the court.

The Jay County guard got Grayden Moyer on his hip, allowing him to probe further into the paint. That’s when Carter Fraze — Phillips’ defender — stepped up to try and help stop Nichols.

The senior shuffled the ball to the ducking in Phillips, who hit the game-winning layup before Fraze could recover.

“We were just trying to push the ball up and get an easy one before they could set up on us,” Nichols said. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking too hard. I just got the ball and knew there wasn’t a lot of time left. I just tried to make a play and Aiden was there.”

“It was intense,” Phillips said. “Parker had a nice drive and kicked it off to me to finish it.

“It felt amazing. I can’t thank my teammate much more for putting me in that position.”

With only two seconds left, Winchester (12-11) attempted a prayer from three-quarters court that fell short to end the game.

Even before the dramatic ending, the fourth quarter was tight and tied for most of the final three minutes at 42-42.

Jay County had the ball with just under a minute remaining. After running a play, its first option wasn’t there, resulting in Crouch holding the ball with his back to the basket. Swoveland found some space in the corner and Crouch kicked the ball out so the sophomore could hit a three that ignited the crowd, gave JCHS a three-point lead and forced Winchester to call a timeout with 26.3 seconds left.

Wesley Bihn (left) and Levi Muhlenkamp cheer from Jay Countys bench after Gradin Swoveland hit 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left to take the lead against Winchester on Tuesday. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Swoveland ended with game highs in both points and rebounds. He shot 7-of-17 from the field to total 16 points while pulling down eight defensive rebounds.

“Gradin is probably our best offensive player,” Bomholt said. “He gives us outside presence, inside presence and a great rebounder on defense. Now we’ve got him going on the offensive part of it.”

Coming out of Winchester’s timeout, Jay County deflected the ball out of bounds. The following inbound play featured Hummel coming off of a staggered screen to get a wide-open look on the right wing. He drained the triple to tie the game.

Hummel ended as the Golden Falcons’ leading scorer with 13 points on 35.7% (5-of-14) from the floor.

“Caleb is a really good shooter and he’s hit some big shots for us,” Winchester coach Jake Turner said. “He doesn’t worry about the fact if he missed the last shot or the last five shots. He’s got the confidence to shoot the next one and that’s what we want. …

“It was good execution by our guys and it was huge to hit that. If we had a timeout, we would have loved to foul because we had a couple to give. But unfortunately, it was so loud in here that the guys couldn’t hear it.”

Turner mentioned that he felt defensive rotations like the one on the final play were what cost Winchester the game. A lot of the Patriots’ offense came off drives into the paint that either resulted in a decent look for the ball handler, or an open layup after a defender stepped up, in turn leaving their man open.

“I would say we probably lost this game due to our defensive rotations,” Turner said. “There were too many times we got beat baseline and when we did rotate over to keep the ball out of the paint, we didn’t help the helper enough. We’ve got to do a better job of cleaning up those defensive rotations. …

“The effort was there, but if we make some of those rotations, maybe it doesn’t come down to that last minute.”

Phillips took advantage of similar situations in the first quarter, cleaning up the offensive rebound after his defender left to help for easy put-backs. 

In the second quarter, Swoveland started finding ways to score off of drives while multiple Patriots made their way to the foul line.

Liam Garringer dominated the third quarter, scoring 10 of his 12 points by getting downhill to the cup.

Bomholt said a big key for Jay County’s success was never giving up a big run, also noting that Winchester’s biggest lead in the game was only five points near the end of the second period.

“We just never let them have that run that would have put the game away, and that’s happened to us a couple of times in other games,” Bomholt said. “Fortunately for us, we were able to keep the lead shrunk enough that we could answer it. The kids did a really good job of that.”

Junior varsity

The Patriots had total control in their 71-18 win over Winchester, never allowing more than seven points in a quarter.

Jay County (13-6) held the Golden Falcons to five points in the first period, three in the second and two in the fourth. Winchester’s best frame came in the second, as Carter Campbell hit a shot and split two pairs of free throws for four points and Foster Kratoska added a three.

Campbell was the only player to hit multiple shots, ending with 10 points.

Conversely, the second period was the worst for the Patriots, yet they still scored 13. Cole Forthofer scored six of his 11 to power the period.

Sean Bailey had the most points for JCHS with 16, 11 of which came in the third. Brock Wasson added 13, while Drew Schemenaur and Boston Barnett matched Forthofer with 11.

Jay County Patriots vs.

Winchester Golden Falcons

Boys varsity summary

Winchester (12-11)

        FG-FGA    FT-FTA    PTS

Hummel    5-14    0-0    13

Overton    1-1    0-0    3

Price    0-0    2-4    2

Baldwin    0-2    0-0    0

Moyer    2-6    0-0    6

Fraze    4-9    0-0    9

Tarter    1-1    2-2    4

Moore    3-9    2-2    8

McFarland    0-0    0-0    0

Totals    16-42    6-8    45

        .381    .750

Def. rebound percentage: .615

Jay County (8-12)

        FG-FGA    FT-FTA    PTS

Comer    2-6    0-0    5

Nichols    0-1    0-0    0

Mhlnkmp    0-0    0-0    0

Garringer    5-8    2-2    12

Dunnington    0-0    0-0    0

Crouch    1-4    0-1    2

Dirksen    0-0    1-2    1

Phillips    5-6    1-2    11

Bihn    0-2    0-0    0

Swoveland    7-17    1-3    16

Totals    20-44    5-10    47

        .455    .500

Def. rebound percentage: .739

Score by quarters:

Win.    9    16    10    10    —    45    

Jay Co.    11    11    14    11    —    47

    3-point shooting: Winchester 7-23 (Hummel 3-9, Moyer 2-6, Overton 1-1. Fraze 1-3, Baldwin 0-2, Moore 0-2). Jay County 2-8 (Swoveland 1-2, Comer 1-3, Nichols 0-1, Garringer 0-2).

    Rebounds: Winchester 22 (Price 5, Fraze 4, Moore 4, Hummel 2, Baldwin 2, Moyer 2, Tarter 2, team). Jay County 27 (Swoveland 8, Phillips 6, Crouch 5, Garringer 3, team 2, Comer, Dunnington, Bihn).

    Assists: Winchester 13 (Baldwin 4, Moyer 3, Price 2, Moore 2, Hummel, Overton). Jay County 6 (Comer, Nichols, Garringer, Dunnington, Crouch, Swoveland).

    Blocks: Winchester 1 (Moore). Jay County 3 (Dunnington, Bihn, Swoveland).

    Personal fouls: Winchester 11 (Tarter 3, Hummel 2, Price 2, Moore 2, Baldwin, Fraze). Jay County 12 (Nichols 3, Crouch 3, Swoveland 2, Comer, Dirksen, Phillips, Bihn).

    Turnovers: Winchester 15. Jay County 14.