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The Patriots went seven weeks without a victory.

By the time the buzzer sounded Saturday, they had two wins in less than 24 hours.

It took a while to get going in a rare afternoon game, but the Jay County High School boys basketball team took control with a nine-point run to end the first half of the way to a 58-37 victory over the visiting Hagerstown Tigers.

The win followed Friday evening’s 54-19 blowout of South Adams.

“It brought our confidence up a lot,” said senior Trevin Dunnington, who was one of three JCHS players in double figures Saturday. “We needed the wins. We’ve been feeling down.”

After a rough first three minutes, the squads went back and forth with Hagerstown taking a 17-15 lead on a Kendrick Herr 3-pointer at the 6:06 mark of the second quarter. The rest of the half belonged to the Patriots.

Jay County (4-9) took the lead for good on a Dunnington hoop off of an inbound pass from Gradin Swoveland and was up 21-17 following a Liam Garringer 3-pointer. The Tigers’ Grant Semler responded with a triple of his own, only to have the home team score the final nine points of the first half. The last of those baskets came from Ben Crouch on a put-back of a Swoveland miss with four seconds left in the half for a 30-20 advantage.

Hagerstown closed to within six points early in the second half, but Jay County ripped off an 11-0 run to close the third quarter. After a 9-0 Patriot run in the final period, both teams cleared their benches with 3:12 remaining.

Garringer and Crouch handled the early scoring for JCHS, with the former tallying 10 of his game-high 14 points and the latter accounting for eight of his 12 in the first half. Crouch also grabbed five rebounds.

“Crouch probably had the best game of his career,” said Bomholt of the junior, who entered Saturday averaging 3.4 points per game. The dozen points marked his first time scoring in double figures this season. “Just from the standpoint that I saw some enthusiasm from him. He made some shots that got him going.

“Still had a couple of scenarios where we’ve got to get better, but this was probably in his varsity career probably his best game overall.”

Dunnington joined Garringer and Crouch in double figures, scoring eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and finishing a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. He had a game-high six boards to lead the Patriots to a 34-23 rebounding advantage.

“I feel like the pick and rolls were working every time,” said Dunnington, who was averaging five points per game. “I had a wide-open lane to take it there. It took it.”

JCHS needed more time to find its groove Saturday after running out to an 11-0 lead over South Adams the night before. The teams combined for 11 turnovers and 0-for-4 shooting before Garringer hit a baseline jumper for the game’s first points with 4:55 on the first-quarter clock. The late first-half run put the Patriots in control on the way to their first back-to-back wins since topping Northeastern (Feb. 4) and Heritage (Feb. 10) last season.

Jay County faced four ranked opponents during its eight-game skid, including Class 2A No. 10 Adams Central twice. Its seven rivals during that stretch have a combined record of 63-33.

The remainder of the schedule seems more manageable — the eight teams left are a combined 54-54. Most are hovering around .500, with the exceptions of Bellmont (11-3) and Southern Wells (2-10).

Are the Patriots ready to make a run?

“I’d like to think,” said Bomholt, whose team will visit Bluffton (6-7) and former JCHS coach Craig Teagle on Friday before returning home Saturday to take on Blackford (9-6). “But it’s awfully difficult that we’re this deep into the schedule and we still don’t have that set lineup. I don’t think I’ve ever gone this late in the season and not be able to say, ‘There’s our starters. There’s our first guard off the bench. There’s our first post guy off the bench.’ But hopefully we’ll get closer to that by Thursday this week.”

Junior varsity

Jay County turned a close game into a blowout in the second period and rolled to a 57-34 victory.

The Patriots were up just three at the end of the first quarter. They outscored Hagerstown 20-2 in the second seven minutes and never looked back.

Brady Jetmore, Drew Schemenaur and Cole Forthofer all scored 11 points for JCHS, with Schemenaur connecting on three 3-pointers. Benson Barnett and Kade Sommers added six points apiece.