Final eight minutes

MUNCIE — The Patriots hung with the Bearcats for the first three quarters.

One spurt in the fourth put them ahead and the defense took care of the rest as they put the Bearcats down.

The Jay County High School boys basketball team took over in the fourth quarter to beat the Muncie Central Bearcats 72-63 on Saturday.

“Overall, it’s a solid performance,” said JCHS coach Tyler Rigby. “It’s a hard place to play. They’re a really good team at what they do and the way they play. They play a different way than most, so it’s kind of difficult to prepare for. But I thought we handled ourselves pretty well and played a little better in bigger situations.”

One of those big situations came early in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots (6-2) trailed Muncie Central (4-3) by one after three periods, but Jayden Comer hit a triple off an assist by Barnett to take the lead.

The Bearcats punched back as Darion Montgomery tipped up his own missed shot to tie the game at 53-53. Gradin Swoveland hit a pair of free throws while Montgomery split a pair.

Over the next two minutes, Barnett stepped up as a facilitator to spark a 7-0 run for the Patriots and take a 62-54 lead.

The sophomore point guard had some elevated minutes in the contest as Gabe Overton dealt with foul trouble. His first assist of the run came on a baseline-out-of-bounds play in which he found Comer for a deep three.

The next time down the floor, Barnett drove the paint and shuffled the ball back up the lane line to Aiden Phillips for a tear drop. Phillips raced down the floor after his make and drew a charge on Montgomery, forcing a MCHS timeout. Out of the timeout, Barnett found Cole Forthofer with a mismatch in the post for a drop step dunk.

“His minutes were huge and he played great,” Rigby said. “He took care of the ball, got it to spots it needed to go. He had the opportunity to play more now that Gabe was in foul trouble and he’s earning trust every game, every practice. He goes to work every single day. You don’t have to worry about him and he’s starting to get comfortable in his role and really flourish.”

While the run ended, the JCHS defense did not. Rigby deployed a variety of defenses throughout the game including a sagging man, a 1-3-1 zone and what appeared to be a diamond-and-one with Swoveland guarding Jaxson Johnson. After gaining the 8-point lead, the Jay County defense only gave up eight more points while scoring nine of its own.

While the Bearcats scored 18 points in the third quarter, the Patriot defense did better as a while getting out on shooters and taking away easy passes to cutters off of drives. In the first half, Muncie Central hit six 3-point shots and had eight assists. In the second, it hit one three and had two assists.

“You change the way you play when you’re behind,” said MCHS coach Jeff Holloway. “You play one way when you’re moving the ball and shots are going in, but when that pressure sets in to score, some guys take it upon themselves to score rather than trusting the system and what worked in the first half. … I thought we played hard and didn’t play selfish. Their size just got to us in the second half.”

The Patriots also had a cleaner second half offensively when it comes to turnovers and that’s largely due to the steady hand of Swoveland.

Swoveland started bringing the ball up the floor, preventing the Bearcat pressure from creating a turnover. From there he would decide to enter the ball into the offense or just drive the paint himself, which worked well as he finished 8-of-12 from the floor to tie Forthofer for a team-high 19 points.

“Our big guys were tearing it up and that opened up the floor,” said Swoveland, who also had a game-high 10 rebounds for a double-double. “If I get the edge, they’re sticking to the big, so I get easy layups.”

Junior varsity

The Patriots JV team fell to Muncie Central 51-45 after a rough start.

Jay County only had six points in the first quarter on a pair of shots by Alex Miller and a Nick Snow hoop, while the Bearcats ran off 15 points. The Patriots were never able to catch back up after the early deficit.

Brody Collins led JCHS with 15 points, while Miller added 10. Snow and Tyler Wasson both finished with six while Paul Dirksen had five points and Sam Wiggins hit a three.

De’Marshuwn Clemons led MCHS with 12 points, followed by Jonah Johnson with 11.