A win, but no celebration

The Patriots scored the game’s first nine points while Elwood struggled to keep possession.

They pushed to a 28-5 lead late in the first half.

An 8-0 run in the fourth quarter put the game away.

There was no level of celebration, though, especially as they look toward the next opponent on the schedule.

Jay County High School’s boys basketball team was in control throughout its season-opening 42-21 win Tuesday over the Panthers, but walked away knowing it will have to play significantly better as it heads on the road Saturday to Richmond.

“The game was exactly how we practiced,” said JCHS coach Jerry Bomholt. “We played exactly how we prepared, and that’s not good.

“We didn’t execute. How many times did we fumble a pass right to us? … When that kind of thing happens on the floor, you know there wasn’t attention to detail ...”

Jay County (1-0) got on the board first when Cole Forthofer split a pair of free throws at the 6:05 mark of the first quarter and proceeded to build a 9-0 lead. The Panthers (0-1), meanwhile, turned the ball over on their first five possessions and went scoreless for nearly five minutes.

Another 15-point run for the Patriots had them up by 23 before a Brice Shuler 3-pointer off of an assist from Blaise Jones seven seconds before halftime.

“We were talking,” said Tucker Griffin, a senior team captain and transfer from New Castle. “We were playing the way that we want to play. We were playing precise.”

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Jay County boys basketball vs. Elwood (11/26/2024)

A 28-8 advantage at halftime thanks to two big scoring runs had the game looking as if it was heading for a running clock in the second half. But Jay County’s offense fizzled while EHS hit a trio of third-quarter 3-pointers and then got a hoop from Jayden Mullins for the opening points of the final period to close the gap to 11.

“I was so happy with our kids, that they fought and battled,” said Elwood coach Ryan VanSkyock, a 2003 JCHS graduate. “For us, we kind of had the score where we wanted it to be to dictate the tempo. …

“I’m just proud of our kids effort on the defensive end and how they battled.”

The Patriots were never truly in danger as they put the game away with an 8-0 run that included five points from Aiden Phillips. (He converted an offensive rebound into a three-point play and hit a layup on an outlet pass from Jayden Comer.) But with Richmond looming Saturday, players and coach agreed their level of play was not where it needs to be.

“We should’ve been cheering in the locker room, but instead we’re having tough talks,” said Griffin. “If we play like that Saturday, we’re going to get ran out of the gym. So we need to play better, we need to practice harder. It starts with the little things.”

What little things?

“Much better on-ball pressure, much better defensive rebounding,” said Bomholt, whose team opened the 2023-24 season with a 56-19 shellacking of Elwood and then lost to Richmond by 41 four days later. “The times we got them blocked out, there was nobody around. And then when we broke down, we broke down by not getting the shooter covered. There were a lot of things that we went through that, my oh my.”

All of the nine Jay County players who saw the floor scored, with Gradin Swoveland and Griffin leading the way at 10 points apiece. Phillips followed with seven points while pulling down a team-high seven rebounds.

Elwood turned the ball over seven times in the opening period and had difficulty against the Patriots’ 3-2 zone, especially with a starting lineup including the 6-foot-9-inch Forthofer and 6-foot-6-inch Swoveland. It managed just nine field-goal attempts inside the arc and shot 5-of-24 (21%) from long distance.