The Jay County Patriots will head out on the road to challenge the Heritage Patriots at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Jay County is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last five games.
Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up seven more assists than your opponent, a fact Jay County proved on Thursday. They took down Southern Wells 53-39.
The match pitted two dominant guards against one another in Gradin Swoveland and Chandler Oswalt. Swoveland had a solid game and scored nine points along with two steals. Meanwhile, Oswalt did his best for the losing side, scoring 13 points.
Something new happened on Thursday as Jayden Comer saw his first action of the season, playing 15 minutes against Southern Wells. Comer made the most of the opportunity, scoring eight points along with three steals. A few more games like that and he might be seeing even more time going forward.
Meanwhile, Heritage came up short against Norwell on Tuesday and fell 62-52. While losing is never fun, Heritage can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 303rd, while Norwell is ranked 143rd).
Jay County pushed their record up to 7-9 with that victory, which was their fourth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.3 points per game. As for Heritage, they have been struggling recently as they've lost six of their last seven matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-12 record this season.
Jay County won a matchup that couldn't have been any closer in their previous meeting back in February of 2023, slipping by Heritage 45-44. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Heritage's Luke Saylor, who scored 19 points along with seven rebounds and five assists. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be that much easier for Jay County to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
