Successful night all around for Hoyt family as JWCC men advance to Region 24 semifinals

QUINCY — Brad Hoyt is the long-time men’s basketball coach at John Wood Community College.

He’s also the father of 17-year-old Jake Hoyt, a member of the Quincy Notre Dame boys basketball team.

While Brad was coaching Wednesday night, Jake was playing against Maroa-Forsyth in a sectional tournament game at Stanford Olympia.

Both enjoyed victories.

Those kind of long-distance challenges can be excruciating for the father of an athlete, and Wednesday night was a prime example. Moments after JWCC’s 86-76 victory over Lincoln Land Community College in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Region 24 tournament at the Student Activity Center, Brad was scanning his phone for a report on the QND game.

“I have to miss some of (Jake’s) games,” he said. “My main focus tonight had to be coaching my team.”

But that doesn’t mean his mind did not wander at times. He’s only human — and a father.

“I told Jake to just be himself,” Brad said. “We’re used to this kind of thing in a coaching family.”

For the record, QND defeated Maroa-Forsyth 60-42, advancing to Friday night’s sectional championship game against Bloomington Central Catholic. Brad Hoyt should be able to attend that contest since his club is idle until 3 p.m. Saturday in the regional semifinals, facing either Danville (17-6) or Illinois Central (10-16) in a game scheduled for Lincoln Land in Springfield.

While JWCC (17-13) led Lincoln Land (7-20) the majority of the game, the Trail Blazers were unable to ice the victory until the closing minutes. JWCC outscored Lincoln Land 8-0 to take a 79-69 advantage with 1:55 remaining. The Trail Blazers, who led by as many as 19 points early in the second half, were not seriously threatened again.

Jarvis Jennings poured in 35 points and collected seven rebounds to trigger the Trail Blazers’ offense. The Columbia (Mo.) Hickman product, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, has scored 64 points in his last two games and built a string of nine straight double-figure performances.

“He’s going to be the player of the year in the Mid-West Athletic Conference,” Hoyt said. “He’s pretty good, isn’t he? He can bail us out of a lot of things.”

Jennings is averaging 20.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, both tops in the MWAC.

Brandon Kracht (19) and Ja’veon Taylor (15) also produced double-figure scoring nights for the Trail Blazers, who had entered the postseason with five losses in their previous six starts.

Hoyt. now 233-148 at JWCC in 12 seasons, felt his club built several what-looked-to-be-comfortable margins, but could never deliver a knockout punch. He said that’s been a problem all season.

“Our kids took their foot off the pedal, but also give Lincoln Land a lot of credit,” Hoyt said.

Lincoln Land, which closes the season with 14 losses in its last 17 games, put five players in double figures. Michael Ousley III led the way with 15 points, while Davarrion Reynods registered 14 points and 13 rebounds.

The bottom line, according to Hoyt?

“Our players didn’t want the year to end,” he said.