Jury vs. Jury Round 1 – goes to the Chieftains

NEW RIEGEL – In his 36th season as a boys basketball coach, Friday night might've been the hardest game Roger Jury has ever coached, he admitted after a wild 64-56 overtime win for Hopewell-Loudon at rival New Riegel in the first matchup of the Battle of Bullfrog Road.Yes, H-L came back and grabbed a huge win, but the past week leading up to the first-ever coaching matchup with his son – Jordyn Jury – wasn't easy."I was actually sick for the past week … I didn't tell my wife, I didn't tell Jordyn and getting a text from coach Rob Sheldon last night, I told the coaches I've probably been a jerk the last 8-10 days," Roger Jury said. "It's been hard and because of that it was nice there was a lot of hype coming into this, but I stayed over a lot this week and I probably didn't get involved in the hype as much because I knew what this meant to Jordyn and me … I'll be honest I think I looked at him during our pregame handshake and then I didn't look at him the rest of the game because I know how hard he works."Jordyn, who was an all-Ohioan for his dad and the all-time leading scorer for the Chieftains during his four years in high school, knew pretty much what his dad and H-L was going to do on the court Friday night and the Blue Jackets were well-prepared in the first half. But H-L (5-5, 3-2 SBC River) adjusted defensively and held New Riegel (4-7, 2-5) to just 23 total points in the second half and overtime."I wanted to start the day early as some of the boys asked to come in and shoot as we weren't allowed to have practice yesterday (due to weather), so my thought was 'I'm gonna get up and get to practice early and beat dad to the gym today,' so I started being competitive then," Jordyn said. "Just being around the school and the community, you could tell how excited they were for this game tonight."When they came walking off the bus I was standing near the gym and I kind of locked eyes with dad then and then I knew it was getting real. He's been doing a great job for a long time. From watching him in the bleachers to now being on the other sideline, it was special for sure. Obviously, I wish I could've got him tonight, but sharing the court and competing with him on the court in a way we haven't done before was really cool and something I was looking forward to. It was a really special night to share with dad, but I just wish he didn't get the better of me tonight." A big reason for the Chieftains' win was the play of junior Kellen Frankart. Frankart, who is not seen as a top scorer for the Chieftains most nights, carried H-L to the finish line with a game-high 25 points, including knocking down three 3-pointers. When the Chieftains trailed 49-43 with 2:15 left in the game, Frankart went on a 6-0 run himself to get the game into OT."I know I had a good defender on me, so I had to drive my way to hoop sometimes and sometimes I was open for a layup, but I knew I had to score to get my team back in it and hopefully win the game," Frankart said. "At halftime, me and coach had a long talk about how I needed to guard better, stay in front, don't let (Owen Kummerer) score, keep my hands up and don't foul, but I made some 3s tonight … thank goodness because I haven't been making those all year."When the game got into overtime, H-L had the momentum and it showed as Collin Smith scored on a layup to begin the extra period and then after a Frankart bucket, Smith made two free throws to give H-L a 55-51 edge with 2:44 left.Aiden Faeth tried to keep the Blue Jackets in it with a few huge drives to the bucket late, but after NR got to within 57-54 with 1:25 left, it never scored again."I talked with Kellen about getting some jump shots to face-up Kummerer because he's been so good lately for them," Roger said. "He scored like 16 consecutive points against St. Mary's, so he's a load and tough to stop, but Kellen got a little worn down there in that first half, but Kellen is Kellen, so he came back and did what he always does. "He's a better 3-point shooter than people think, so we were looking at mismatch, but he did a fantastic job."After a back-and-forth first quarter, Kummerer started to assert his will in the paint with 10 second-quarter points – pair that with a couple Cameron Hohman triples – and the Blue Jackets were rolling offensively with 19 points alone in the second period, taking a 33-28 lead into the half.Then the key was limiting Kummerer in the paint and the Chieftains only allowed one triple in the second half as they made everything tough on the Blue Jackets down the stretch."Making shots always helps. It's the name of the game," Jordyn said. "In the first half we made a couple more and they did a nice job defending inside, but Ashton (Miller), Collin and Kellen played great defense inside and made things tough on us. We just couldn't make many shots in the second half and also our turnovers were an issue (15 total). When you turn the ball over twice as many times as the other team does, it's hard to win games."For H-L, Miller backed Frankart with 16 points and Smith ended with 12. Faeth paced New Riegel with 20 points, followed by Kummerer with 19 and Cameron Hohman with 10.Jordyn gets another shot at evening up the record against his dad and the Chieftains with a matchup in Bascom in the last game of the season Feb. 20. Hopewell-Loudon 64, New Riegel 56 OTH-L (5-5, 3-2 SBC River): Ashton Miller 6-4-16; Corey Gullatt 0-0-0; Brody Brickman 1-1-3; Dexter Stacy 3-0-8; Collin Smith 3-6-12; Sam Humphrey 0-0-0; Kellen Frankart 10-2-25. Totals: 23-13-64.New Riegel (4-7, 2-5): Quinn Allison 0-0-0; Alec Hohman 3-0-6; Aiden Faeth 7-6-20; Cameron Hohman 4-0-10; Brayden Schalk 0-0-0; Sam Clouse 0-0-0; Owen Kummerer 8-2-19. Totals: 22-9-56.H-L&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;11&emsp;&emsp;15&emsp;&emsp;– 64NR&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;19&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;– 563-point goals: H-L 5-11 (Frankart 3, Stacy 2); New Riegel 3-13 (C. Hohman 2, Kummerer)Foul shots: H-L 13-16; New Riegel 9-11Rebounds: H-L 28 (Smith 11); New Riegel 35Turnovers: H-L 7; New Riegel 15