Five on one

Gabe Overton drew the tough responsibility of guarding a 27-point scorer in Mari Leggett.

The Bruin sophomore managed to get his own, Overton made every single point difficult. But he still had the legs to hit some big shots to lift the Patriots in the final period.

Despite guarding the Blackford Bruins’ leading scorer the Overton scored nine fourth quarter points to lift the Jay County High School boys basketball team to a thrilling 75-62 victory in front of a packed gym on Saturday night.

“I’m super happy for the guys,” said JCHS coach Tyler Rigby. “They played really hard. They executed what we asked them to do at a high level. (Bluffton and Blackford) are two really good teams and really well coached teams, so it’s not easy to do in back-to-back nights.”

Leggett wouldn’t let the Bruins (14-3) go down easy.

All of Blackford’s offense ran through the sophomore guard, who averages 26.9 points per game. In an effort to slow him down, the Patriots employed a man-to-man defense with Overton matched up with Leggett and allowed the other guards to sag off their assignments to help on a moment’s notice.

Leggett rarely got easy looks, but either found ways to the rim, or used his 6-foot, 5-inch frame to rise up over Overton to get a shot off. He finished with a career-high 42 points on an efficient 16-of-26 (61.5%) from the field.

“He had 42 tonight, but it felt like 70, because he had to work so hard for every single basket,” said BHS coach Aaron Daniels, who is a Jay County graduate. “They really put a good defensive game plan together.”

Overton guarded Leggett the entire second half. He had to fight through screens, attempt to keep his feet in front of Leggett on drives and rise up on the drop of a dime to contest jumpers.

But he still found the legs to knock down some key shots.

Overton’s first three of the fourth quarter came at 5:49 with a 50-47 advantage – Jayden Comer drove baseline, threw it out to Aiden Phillips who fired it to Overton in the corner. Overton got the chance to leak out in transition on the next play and split a pair of free throws to put Jay County (13-2) up seven points.

Later in the period, the Patriots led by six when Overton picked Leggett’s pocket and scored in transition. On the next possession he hit a final triple on a swing from Comer to go up 11 points on Blackford.

“(It’s) the adrenaline, man,” Overton said. “It’s tiring guarding him the whole game, but that adrenaline just keeps you going. It found it and made (the shots). That’s really it.”

While Overton managed to overcome some exhaustion for the fourth-quarter points, all five Patriot starters, who played nearly the entire first, third and fourth quarters, found ways to contribute.

Comer powered the offense early to finish with 15 points.

Swoveland had a strong second half, getting to the rim and the free throw line to finish with a team-high 26 points.

Phillips only hit one three at the buzzer to end the half, but he guarded Blackford’s second-leading scorer, Mason Kitterman, holding him to just eight points, none of which were scored on him.

Cole Forthofer patrolled the paint to deter the other Bruins from driving, grabbed 12 rebounds and had 15 points on post ups and transition baskets.

“They were hard to guard,” Daniels said. “We tried to run Comer off the 3-point line because he’s a great shooter. We struggled early and lost him a couple times and did a great job late, but then they had other kids step up. Gradin Swoveland was fantastic. We could not keep them off the boards. … We gave up way too many second chance opportunities and they were able to capitalize on them.”

Outside of Leggett, Blackford scored just 20 points, six of which came on assists from Leggett. The Bruins didn’t have any bench points, while Jay County got four from Brock Wasson. (All three Patriots off the bench had assists as well.)

Jay County has now won 11 games in a row and haven’t lost since Dec. 6 at Fort Recovery. After consecutive wins against teams with records at or above .750 and withPatriot ties they will get some rest before an Allen County Athletic Conference matchup with Southern Wells.

“We’ve won 11 in a row, but I wouldn’t even know that if other people didn’t tell me,” Rigby said. “It’s, we want to be better than the last time we were out and it’s been that way since day one I was here. We’re just trying to build every single time.”