Swamped in first half

The first time the Warriors visited Portland, the Patriots defense gave up a total of 28 points, including 27 to the Warriors’ top five scorers on the year.

In the second matchup, the Patriots only gave up 10 points to the top five threats, none of which came in the first half. As a result, the Patriots ran ahead by over 25 points and never looked back.

A strong first half led the Jay County High School boys basketball team to a 65-29 victory over the Woodlan Warriors on Tuesday in the first round of the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament.

The win earns the Patriots (8-2) a spot in the ACAC tournament semifinal against Southern Wells. The game will follow the conclusion of the Jay County girls ACAC semifinal against the Raiders.

“The first half was really good,” said JCHS coach Tyler Rigby. “All week we talked about ourselves and how good we could be at things we do every day. You could tell by the look on their faces, they were locked in and mentally focused on those things and we executed them really well. Much better than we’ve done up to this point.

“I challenged them. ‘Are we satisfied with where we’re at? Because in my opinion, we’ve got a long way to go and could be better.’ And they answered that challenge today.”

The Patriots jumped on top of Woodlan (5-9) early They had a pair of 6-0 runs in the first quarter to develop a 20-7 advantage. Jay County also had an 11-0 stretch over three minutes in the second quarter to build a 37-11 lead at the half.

While the Warriors struggled to contain the Patriots, it was Jay County’s defense that really shined in the first 16 minutes.

Woodlan’s top five scorers on the season, Keaton Delagrange (9.1 points per game), Camden Brooks (9.1), Nate Peters (7.0), C.J. Bullock (4.2) and Alex Art (3.6), were held scoreless in the first half on 0-of-8 from the field.

“Coach does a great job scouting the other team and knowing their players,” said forward Aiden Phillips. “So we’re just already prepared throughout the week, just going throughout the week and going through the scouting report.”

Phillips guarded Delagragne, who had a team-high 12 points during the Dec. 5 matchup with Woodlan. The JCHS senior held Delagrange to just three points on Friday  on 1-of-7 (14.3%) shooting. His sole bucket came on a baseline-out-of-bounds play that got ran too early before the official blew the play live, resulting in Delagrange rejecting the play entirely and relocating to the weakside wing for a triple.

“It was the same thing with the scouting,” said Phillips. “I got to see what he does every day and I just watched him constantly and that’s how I stopped him.”

Peters and Art remained scoreless the entire game, while Brooks made a layup in transition and Bullock finished with five points on two manufactured fast breaks in the third quarter and a free throw in the fourth.

Colin Keppler was Woodlan’s leading scorer with 10 points, but still only had a 25% shooting percentage (3-for-12).

While WHS only had one player reach double figures, both Jayden Comer and Gradin Swoveland had 18 points apiece to lead Jay County. Phillips added nine points as well on short push shots off ball movement or offensive rebounds.

Swoveland found success with one-dribble pull-ups and by pushing the pace to get to the rim. Comer found 12 of his points from deep, but had to take advantage of some broken plays as he was constantly face guarded while the rest of the Warriors were in a 1-3 zone.

“I thought as a group, we were patient at times and it was really good,” said Rigby. “Then we kind of took some quick ones that weren’t necessarily the wrong ones, but just understanding the situation a little better. But I thought for the entirety of the game, we did a pretty good job of choosing our spots on that end.”

Production didn’t stop when Jay County went to its bench.

With a 29-point lead, Rigby started digging deeper into the bench, first with Jacob Monroe. The senior forward immediately knocked down a 3-pointer between the right wing and corner off an assist from Phillips.

He later hit another triple on an assist from Sam Wiggins.

“It’s like a domino effect,” Monroe said. “If (the starters) are doing good, we’re going to follow after them. … Then I was just able to read the defense and find the open shot.”

Even after all the starters had been pulled, the Patriots still suffocated the Warriors’ offense. The bench didn’t allow Woodlan to score a single point while Monroe hit his shots and Nick Snow completed an old-fashioned 3-point play.