Tucker takeover

In his first and only season as a Patriot, Tucker Griffin has made an impact.

On Senior Night, his fourth 3-pointer gave him 27 points and his team a seven-point lead.

Then he turned it over to the team’s leading scorer.

Junior Gradin Swoveland scored seven of his nine points in the final 2:30 Friday in support of Griffin’s big night to help the Jay County High School boys basketball team hold on for a 51-49 victory over the visiting the Norwell Knights.

“We deserved that one,” said JCHS interim coach Brogan Gary. “To fight through adversity and for us to find ways to make winning plays and understand what that looks like is a big thing for us. So this is a huge win.”

Griffin’s triple midway through the fourth quarter off of an offensive rebound and assist from Aiden Phillips capped a 9-0 run that gave the Patriots (11-9) their biggest lead of the night at 44-37. But Norwell (10-10) would not go away, tying the game at 46 with less than two minutes to go.

Swoveland drove into the lane to reclaim the lead and, after a Josh McBride pass into the teeth of the JCHS defense led to a turnover, he added a couple of free throws with 15.4 seconds on the clock to extend the lead to four. 

A three-point play by the Knights kept them in the game, and they had a chance after Swoveland split free throws with eight seconds to go. But Norwell was unable to get anywhere close to the basket, instead getting a fading Adam McBride 3-point try from deep on the left wing that clanged off the rim and was no good at the buzzer.

“We got a good look at the end there, it just didn’t drop,” said Norwell coach Michael McBride. “I thought it was a pretty good look for us … We wanted to get to the rim. We weren’t able to do that, but we got a second option coming off that.”

After Cole Forthofer and Swoveland scored Jay County’s first six points, Griffin carried the offense for the next 22 minutes. 

The highlight came at the end of the first half as he snagged a rebound off of a Norwell miss and launched a 3-pointer from the west side of Indiana as outlined on the Patriots’ court. He buried the shot for a 25-22 halftime lead.

“The kids were all jacked up,” said Gary. “It’s an exciting moment. My biggest thing was to keep building off of that.”

McBride agreed that the three-quarter-court heave was a turning point.

“That thing ends up being an absolute monster in a two-point loss,” he said. “That’s really not our kids’ fault. That’s no one’s fault. We played for the last shot. We did everything right. We got a good look. If we make that shot, they inbound the ball and don’t even get a shot off. …

“It’s a one in 200 type shot, maybe more. But it went in today.”

Griffin had 11 of Jay County’s 15 points in the second quarter and seven of its 10 in the third, when the other three came on a triple from sophomore Brock Wasson. He hit all of his four two-point tries from the field, added four 3-pointers and went 7-of-8 from the line for his 27 points.

He also shared the game high of six rebounds with teammates Jayden Comer and Phillips as the Patriots posted a 29-14 rebounding advantage.

“For him to have his Senior Night go this way, he deserves it,” said Gary. “He’s been great for us from a leadership standpoint. He brings the passion. He brings the grit. That stuff’s contagious.”

Josh McBride’s 22 points and five rebounds were the team high for Norwell. Adam added five assists.

After Norwell scored the first five points and the Patriots tallied the next six, the rest of the game was tight. JCHS trailed just once in the second half — 37-35 after a Josh McBride 3-pointer to open the third quarter — and its seven-point lead a few minutes later was the largest of the game.

Jay County is off tonight and will learn its tournament draw Sunday before closing the regular season with a visit to Winchester on Tuesday and a home game against Bellmont on Friday.

Junior varsity

Jay County struggled in the third quarter and could not recover in a 51-34 loss to the Knights.

The Patriots trailed by just one at the end of the first quarter before getting outscored 16-5 in the second. Their deficit hovered around a dozen points in the third quarter and Norwell pulled away late in the fourth.

Brock Wasson hit three 3-pointers en route to his team high 11 points for the Patriots. Eight of those came in the third quarter.

Benson Barnett added nine points, and Brady Jetmore totaled six.

Trey Privett matched Wasson with three triples and 11 points for Norwell. Cooper Bunn joined him in double figures with 10 points and Noah Comer had nine.