Patriots can’t overcome Yoder

BLUFFTON — First quarter: Trey Yoder 20, Patriots 7

Just a minute into the second, the individual Warrior had increased the advantage to 19 points.

He did it all without missing a shot.

Jay County High School’s boys basketball team roared back from its early deficit to close to within five on a couple of occasions in the third quarter but could not overcome Yoder’s hot start as the Woodlan Warriors pulled a way for a 60-39 victory Friday in the semifinal round of the Allen County Athletic Conference Tournament at Bluffton.

The loss halted a three-game winning streak for the Patriots, who blew out South Adams 61-14 in the opening round of the tournament Tuesday.

The Warriors (7-6) advance to tonight’s ACAC championship game to play Heritage (7-3) — it beat Adams Central 53-45 in the other semifinal — at approximately 8 p.m. at South Adams.

Yoder was everything for Woodlan in the first nine minutes, opening the scoring with a 3-pointer on the right wing off an assist from Ashtin Jacquay and then hitting a pull-up triple. After Jayden Comer hit a shot from long distance for the first Patriot points, Yoder swished a 3-pointer from the left corner and then scored on a layup off of a steal for an 11-3 lead.

He added another 3-pointer at the 2:55 mark and closed his opening period by converting six free throws as JCHS (6-5) was called for fouls on a pair of 3-point attempts.

The Woodlan senior added two more triples in the first minute of the second quarter, giving him 26 points on 7-for-7 shooting from the field, including six 3-pointers, and 6-of-6 from the foul line.

No one else on the Warrior squad had attempted a shot.

While points became more difficult to come by as the Patriots switched out of their usual Zorro defense to a box-and-one with Tucker Griffin hounding Yoder, he still finished with 33. He’s had Jay County’s number this year, scoring 63 in their two meetings while averaging 13.8 in the Warriors’ other 11 games.

The first shot by a Woodlan player not named Yoder came when Mason Moore scored to push his team to a 28-7 lead at the 6:10 mark of the first quarter.

Then the Patriots started chipping away.

They closed back to within 14 at halftime and then scored the first nine points of the third quarter. The Warriors got on the board in the second half on a Drew Fleek basket and edged the lead back out to nine points before JCHS got to within five again on a Gradin Swoveland fade-away. It had a couple of chances to pull closer but was unable to get shots to fall and trailed by eight at the quarter break.

The rest of the game belonged to Woodlan, which pulled away again for the 16-point win as the Patriots went without a field goal in the final period.

Comer hit three 3-pointers to lead Jay County with 11 points. Griffin followed with 10, and Cole Forthofer and Gradin Swoveland each had eight.

JCHS shot 7-of-13 from the field in the third quarter as it rallied back but missed all of its nine tries in the fourth. It committed just seven turnovers for the game but was out-rebounded 28-16.

Moore followed Yoder’s scoring outburst with a dozen points for Woodlan.

The Patriots will play on the road next week at Hagerstown (4-7) on Tuesday and South Adams (2-7) on Friday.