Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Western Reserve’s Dom Ricciardi (2) backs down Jackson-Milton’s Ryen Romigh (11) in the post of the Blue Devils’ victory over the Blue Jays Friday night in North Jackson.

NORTH JACKSON — It ain’t over till it’s over, and Western Reserve proved that in earnest on Friday night.

Facing a 13-point deficit in the second half, the Blue Devils rallied all the way back to take down MVAC rival Jackson-Milton 51-46 for the third straight time and claim the Bud Jones President’s Memorial Trophy.

“I’d almost compare it to an Ohio State/Michigan rivalry. There’s a trophy involved and that brings a little bit more to it,” Reserve head coach Joe Serensky said. “I played in it, and I’ve coached in it. I’ve seen a lot of games. I don’t care if one team is 0-20, this game is going to be a battle, and it’s just a great atmosphere for the kids to play in.”

Things looked bleak early on for Western Reserve, as Jackson-Milton raced ahead to an early lead in the first quarter.

Blue Jays star Ryan Romigh — who broke the school’s career scoring record back on Jan. 17 against Springfield, eclipsing Bobby Schnellbaugh’s record of 1,266 points set back in 2011 — got hot early and scored his team’s first 12 points and 14 of its first 17 during the opening period.

“He’s basically the best player in school history,” J-M head coach Tom Sharp said of Romigh. “He’s just tough. The kid hurt his knee up in Leetonia on Saturday, didn’t get to play Tuesday, then he comes out here tonight and drops 20-plus. He’s just an unreal kid, unreal player. I can’t say it enough. I feel like I say it a lot, but it’s always true. He just does everything well. He picks the kids up, and he’s a leader and role model.”

After the fast start, things slowed down considerably for both teams in the second quarter, but Jackson-Milton still maintained a four-point lead at halftime.

Coming out of the second half, the Blue Jays broke things open with a 9-0 run to build a 13-point lead.

But from there, it was all Blue Devils.

Western Reserve picked things up and closed the deficit back to four by the end of the third quarter. The Blue Devils started to attack the paint, and as a result, were able to get to the free-throw line.

“We got a little cold and took some questionable shots,” Sharp said. “They hit a couple and we kind of let that make us play differently on defense a couple times. I think that stretch right there cost us the game, but Coach Serensky made some good adjustments as well on defense that gave us a little bit of trouble.”

Then Dom Ricciardi went to work in the fourth quarter for Western Reserve. He was relentless in that final period, scoring 10 of his team-high 15 points to help the Blue Devils complete the comeback and take the lead.

“(We) just calmed down in that second half and started going to where our mismatches were more than we did in the first half,” Serensky said. “I thought we were pressing a little bit with a couple guys. But our senior, Dom Ricciardi, I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s a great kid. I know he wanted this one pretty bad, and he carried us in that fourth quarter.”

On the defensive end, Ricciardi also drew the assignment of helping slow down Romigh, who ended up finishing with 26 points after his hot start.

“That’s the fourth year I’ve had to coach against him in this game,” Serensky said. “Every game he’s gotten his points. We knew that going in. You’re not going to stop a kid like that. It was the other guys we couldn’t let get going, and I thought we did a good job of that. Like I told Ryen after the game, I’m not going to miss coaching against him.”

All-in-all, after going down by 13, the Blue Devils closed out the game on a 30-12 run in the second half.

Josh Klasic also finished in double figures for Western Reserve, scoring 11 points, to go along with nine points from Connor Cochran.

Next up for the Blue Devils (9-5) is a trip to Campbell Memorial on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Jackson-Milton (7-9) will travel to Waterloo on Tuesday.