For their coach

A team’s coach can provide a level of consistency, stability and comfort to the players.

Learning less than 30 minutes before you take the floor that your coach won’t be on the sidelines for you can be disruptive.

The Patriots fought through that and secured their coach the win.

Despite not having Jerry Bomholt on the sideline due to a health scare, the Jay County High School boys basketball team earned him his 599th career victory by taking down the Adams Central Jets 62-49 on Saturday.

Bomholt had low blood pressure according to a call that came across the police scanner in The Commercial Review’s office around 7:15 p.m., resulting in him sitting out the game. Assistant coach Doug Arbuckle stepped up to lead the Patriots (5-4, 1-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) and earn Bomholt his 599th career victory.

“First of all, our minds and our hearts are on coach and hopefully his health can get better and he gets the rest he needs. We sure do miss him being here.

“Overall the boys came out, we got out to a good start and played with a lot of heart. We played big for a change and that was huge. … We played unselfishly, sometimes too unselfishly. … Overall a great effort by everyone that got in the game and did something positive. Real proud of them to step up and play the way that they did under the circumstances.”

The Patriots got on top of Adams Central (6-3, 2-1 ACAC) early. With a 7-6 advantage, Jay County rattled off 11 consecutive points over the final 3 minutes, 36 seconds of the first quarter.

Junior Gradin Swoveland had a hand in all 11 points. He scored the first two baskets on one-dribble, pull-up jumpers on back-to-back possessions. The next time down the floor, Swoveland assisted Tucker Griffin on a 3-pointer. He got to the free throw line 26 seconds later, where he knocked down a pair of foul shots. The run capped off with Swoveland inbounding the ball to Eli Petro on a slip to the rim to end the first quarter with an 18-6 lead.

Over the final 2:15 of the quarter, ACHS coach Aaron McClure called two timeouts to get into his players for coughing up the ball, as they had six turnovers to only eight shot attempts. Jay County also held the Jets 0-6 from deep in the period.

“We were just moving the ball really well,” Swoveland said. “Everyone had trust in one another and we were able to succeed through that. … We pressured the ball and they couldn’t handle it. I mean, just ball pressure alone was stopping the three ball because they weren’t comfortable.”

The Jets cut the deficit to just four points by halftime after not turning the ball over at all in the second quarter. 

The JCHS defense forced another six turnovers in the third quarter, while attacking Adams Central’s 2-3 zone to score 13-of-16 points at the rim or off of free throws.

The Patriots used advantage of their size, playing four players that are 6 foot, 5 inches or taller (Eli Petro, Cole Forthofer, Swoveland and Kade Sommers), while Adams Central’s tallest players (Marcus Bollenbacher and Braylend Reber) are both 6 foot, 4 inches.

Jay County outrebounded the Jets 36-19, while pulling down 80% of its defensive rebounding opportunities. Eli Petro led the way with nine boards, while Forthofer and guard Jayden Comer each had seven.

The forwards also accounted for 74.2% of the Patriots’ scoring in the game. Petro led JCHS with 16 points. He scored eight in the fourth quarter, including two hoops where he was fouled, which caused the gym to erupt.

“We noticed they weren’t as big,” Petro said. “We took that to heart and listened to coaches and tried to get as close to the basket and then using our height, size and (vertical) to get up.”

Behind Petro, Forthofer and Swoveland both had 14 points and Griffin scored 10.

Trace Maller led ACHS with 27 points on 9-for-21 (42.9%) and 4-for-13 (30.7%) from behind the arc. Three of Maller’s triples came in the final period with the first coming off of a release on a baseline-out-of-bounds play, a cross-court skip pass from Cade Van De Weg and a set play that had him receiving a pin down screen from the left corner.

“They got some open looks there late in the fourth quarter,” Arbuckle said. “We can’t let them be stand-still shooters. We’ve got to put pressure on them and make them put the ball on the floor. … But just super proud of these boys and their unselfishness to be able to share the ball and get four players in double figures.”

While it is unclear if Bomholt will be ready to coach again come Tuesday's ACAC tournament opener, a school official stated that he was in stable condition Saturday night and that he may return if his health is in order.

Bomholt could notch his 600th-career victory Tuesday at South Adams (2-6, 0-2 ACAC). But for now, the Patriots were just happy to get 599 for their coach.

“We had to work hard and tried to do everything coach preaches,” Swoveland said. “We want to make him proud even if he’s not there. … It was huge. We stepped up when it mattered and I think coach would be proud of us.”