Patriots hold their lead

WINCHESTER — The Patriots could not miss from deep.

While a barrage of 3-pointers developed a 20-point advantage midway through the second half, Gabe Overton wasn’t going to let the Golden Falcons go down without a fight.

While the sophomore dropped 15 points on the Patriots in the final period, the visitors did just enough to hold on to their lead and the win.

Jay County High School’s boys basketball team survived the Winchester Community Golden Falcons’ comeback attempt for a 68-57 victory on Tuesday night.

“Very proud of them,” said JCHS interim coach Brogan Gary. “We had a good start. Shot the ball well and shot it with confidence. Very proud of how those guys handled that (adversity). Obviously this is a learning experience to finish out games and do the small things even though we’re up 19, we’ve got to learn how to dig deep and be disciplined.”

Jay County (12-9) entered the final period with a 19-point lead at 56-37. But after the Patriots had controlled the game through the first three quarters — Winchester (11-12) only led 1-0 after Overton got to the free throw line on an open-side drive — the Golden Falcons employed a full-court press designed to trap ball handlers near the timeline and sidelines.

The zone press resulted in five JCHS turnovers and led to 13 Overton points — he also dished out an assist during the stretch — to cut Winchester’s deficit to 59-53. (Overton finished as the Golden Falcon’s leading scorer with 20 points, all but one of which were scored in the second half, and passed on four assists.)

“He knows one speed and that’s 110%,” said WCHS coach Jake Turner. “His energy is good for the rest of our guys … He loves playing that frenetic style, I’m sure he’d love for us to press a little bit more. So I was really happy for him to have that success.”

After Gary called a timeout with 3 minutes, 58 seconds remaining, the Patriots got things under control to be able to finish off Winchester.

On the offensive end, the Patriots found a way to break the press with Jayden Comer receiving a pass between the opposing volleyball line and midcourt, beating one defender and making a decision to attack or pull it out and run clock. That strategy led to Comer dishing assists to Eli Petro and Aiden Phillips, as well as giving a pass ahead to Benson Barnett, who hit a pair of free throws.

“Once they all collapsed, just dish that thing,” Comer said. “That’s all it is.”

Down on the other end of the floor, Eli Dirksen got subbed in and took on the responsibility of guarding Overton. The WCHS sophomore guard only managed two more points on a drive to the rim with 31 seconds remaining.

“(Dirksen) took a lot of pride and a lot of leadership to take that upon himself,” said Gary. “He’s a great kid, so I knew he was going to give his best effort. He was determined to slow him down, which was huge for us.”

Jay County jumped on top of the Golden Falcons early as Tucker Griffin followed his 27-point performance against Heritage with four first-quarter 3-pointers.

After Griffin went to the bench early in the second quarter with a second foul, Comer banged home four triples of his own, supplemented by one more from Brock Wasson.

JCHS found the bottom of the net four more times from deep, with Comer hitting another three triples and Gradin Swoveland adding one of his own. Swoveland’s three early in the third period as the Patriots led by 21 points 41-20. They hit a 20-point cushion after a pair of bonus free throws by Benson Barnett before Overton split his own bonus foul shots.

In all, the Patriots shot 13-of-20 (65%) from deep, without even attempting a three in the final period. Comer shot a perfect 7-of-7 from deep — he was 8-for-8 from the field for a game-high 23 points — to lead the way for JCHS. Both Comer and Gary attributed the lights-out shooting to good ball movement, as 12 of the 13 triples came off assists.

“Our ball movement is getting better,” Comer said. “We’ve been working really hard on it and ball movement in practice because we hadn’t been doing that much. Now we are starting to play as a team and it really showed tonight.”

The Patriots are set to close out the regular season Friday against Bellmont before facing Yorktown in the sectional opener at New Castle on March 4.

Junior varsity

A hot start lifted the Patriots to a 63-51 victory over Winchester on Tuesday. 

Jay County scored 20 points to the Golden Falcons’ five in the opening period on four triples and four more shots near the rim.

Nick Snow led JCHS with 16 points, while Brock Wasson and Drew Schemenaur followed with 15 and 10, respectively. Jacoby Addington was the high scorer for WCHS with 13.