Staff photo / Dan Hiner Jackson-Milton’s Ryen Romigh (11) puts up a shot while St. John’s Grayson Petros defends during the fourth quarter of Friday’s game.

ASHTABULA — Everything was going well for the Jackson-Milton boys basketball team. That was until the fourth quarter.

The Blue Jays’ season came to an end on Friday, falling to St. John in Ashtabula 66-58 in a Division VII sectional final.

The Heralds will face Jerome Hillsdale in the district semifinal.

“We got a little gassed, but we just caught a cold streak,” Jackson-Milton head coach Tom Sharp said. “The ball just wasn’t going in. Maybe we could have ran some different stuff on offense, but we caught a cold stretch and it hurt us tonight.”

The Blue Jays (9-14) were within striking distance for most of the night, but the Heralds went on a 13-2 run to start the fourth quarter. That was the knockout punch they needed to put the game out of reach as they outscored the Blue Jays 22-12 in the fourth.

“Basketball’s a game of runs. We’ll go on runs, they’ll go on runs. It’s just who will weather the storm better,” Jackson-Milton senior Ryen Romigh said. “They came out on top on that tonight.”

The two teams battled back and forth since the opening tip.

St. John l ed 12-10 at the end of the first, and the Heralds took a 30-27 lead into the locker room.

Romigh started to overwhelm St. John and led the Jays’ attack in the third. He scored 11 of his game-high 36 points in the frame. That effort put Jackson-Milton ahead 46-44 going into the fourth.

The game was tied at 46 until a layup by Romigh with just under 6:30 to play gave the Blue Jays the lead. However, back-to-back threes by St. John put the Heralds back in front.

Those deep shots triggered the Heralds’ run, and they were never threatened the rest of the night.

The loss was the final game on the hardwood for several seniors. The group consisted of Vincent Fay, Jase Greco, Ethan Kerr and Romigh.

“I just told them a little bit ago, they left the program better than they found it,” Sharp said. “They built a culture at Jackson-Milton, they built excitement at Jackson-Milton that should go on for a long time. Just the way that they played the game, approached practice and their work ethic. That’s what they built, a really good culture. It was fun to be around these kids, it was a pleasure to be around them.”

Friday’s game was a microcosm of Jackson-Milton’s rollercoaster season.

The Blue Jays got off to a bad start to the year but fought their way to a 9-9 record going into the final couple weeks. Injuries started to take their toll, however, and the team started to run on empty as the end of the regular season approached.

“I think it just shows the fight that our kids had,” Sharp said. “To start the season 2-7 – had key injuries – and to fight back to 9-9 at one point. It was a 7-2 stretch, beat some good teams along the way. The only team to beat Campbell in the conference. It just kinda showed what kinda kids we had.”