First in 49

The Patriots have played a brutal schedule so far this season.

It had been 49 days since they last experienced a win.

They refused to let that number tick over to 50.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team dominated the South Adams Starfires from first tip to final buzzer to snap an eight-game losing streak with a 54-19 victory Friday.

“Over the last seven games — I don’t have it exactly, but I think I’m pretty close — those seven teams were like 81-40,” JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt said. “The strength of our schedule … has challenged us to do some things a little better.

“We worked hard and tonight we got a few different combinations on the floor, which was something I wanted to do one more time before we make a decision on where we go with our starting lineup. … Tonight, I thought we got really good balance.”

Jay County (3-9, 2-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) flowed on offense, getting different looks at the basket for multiple different players. Liam Garringer was the only Patriot to break double-digit scoring with 12 points.

After the senior, six different players scored between five and nine points for Jay County. They scored in different ways as well.

Gradin Swoveland and Trevin Dunnington both hit threes. Wesley Bihn and Ben Crouch played well with their backs to the basket. Eli Dirksen found his three baskets on back cuts and short drives to the rim. Levi Muhlenkamp also scored off of a back cut, as well as on offensive rebound that opened the scoring for Jay County.

“Having so many scorers makes it a lot easier,” Muhlenkamp said. “That means you can get the ball to anybody you need at the time and they can get a bucket for you. It just, it makes them think who to guard and it just makes offense a lot easier.

“We were keeping the ball with us, not turning it over, just creating good shots, trying to get the ball in the post and moving in transition.”

Muhlenkamp’s put-back sparked an 11-0 run for Jay County to begin the game. During that run, multiple Patriots were contributing offensively as Bihn, Swoveland and Garringer all had buckets in the four-minute stretch.

South Adams (1-11, 1-2 ACAC) got on the board with a drive from Owen Wanner with 2 minutes, 30 seconds, left in the opening frame. It was the only bucket of the first quarter for the Starfires, as JCHS built a 17-2 lead.

Offense wouldn’t come any easier for the Starfires during the rest of the game, as they scored seven points in the second quarter — three came on Tytus Lehman free throws with 1.7 seconds left — five in the third and five in the fourth.

Locking down Lehman was a focal point for Jay County in the game. It forced the prolific driver to become a shooter, and he finished only 2-of-9 from the field for nine points.

“We took away their strength and did a good job on him,” Bomholt said. “In our zone, you can't let him attack what we call the gaps. So, we just closed down anytime they put it on the floor trying to attack.”

Wanner didn’t have much more success, tallying eight points on 3-for-11 from the floor. The only other player to score was Diesel Zeigler, who planted himself next to the rim and received a bullet pass from Wanner for a layup.

Another key part of stopping the Starfires’ offense was preventing extra possessions. Jay County out-rebounded SAHS 29-16, only allowing four offensive rebounds.

“That was definitely one of our goals going into tonight,” said Dirksen, who tied for Garringer for a game-high five rebounds. “That’s something that coach always hounds us about. Rebounding with the zone is always hard, but we work on it in practice and we executed.”

Jay County only committed 11 turnovers, six of which came in the fourth quarter when Bomholt started to mix and match lineups and empty his bench.

Along with snapping the losing streak, the win gives Jay County the opportunity to gain some momentum as it moves into a lighter stretch of its schedule. Bomholt will look for another strong performance from his team as it hosts 2-6 Hagerstown at noon today.

“We wanted to get everybody involved and have a nice balanced effort,” Bomholt said. “We did that. Now we get back to business tomorrow.” 

Junior varsity

Stout defense helped Jay County roll to a 47-13 victory over the Starfires.

The Patriots (8-3) only gave up five points in the first half, while scoring 22 points themselves. Brady Jetmore was the leading scorer in the first half, putting up all nine of his points in the first two quarters.

Carter Fugiett owned the game-high in scoring as four 2-point buckets, a three and a free throw earned him 12 points. Cole Forthofer had the next highest scoring total with 10 points.

Easton O’Dell had the most points of any Starfire with five.

Freshmen

The Patriots had a massive third quarter in a 50-15 blowout of South Adams.

Brock Wasson exploded for 11 of his 16 points on three 3-point shots to fuel a 17-point period. Eli Petro put the ball through the rim two times while Joe Geesaman connected once in the quarter as well.

The Starfires were held to zero points in the third quarter as they struggled from the floor and Hunter Fields missed the only free throw attempts.

Craig Landis had the most points for SAHS with six, all of which came in the opening period on a pair of three-point plays.

Benson Barnett followed Wasson with 12 points for the Patriots, Petro tallied nine, Geesaman had eight and Wyatt Foster added five.