The lid was on the basket for the Junction City Blue Jays ( 2-2 ) in the second half Friday night in a 55-50 loss to the Hays Indians ( 5-1 )at the Shenk Gym.

After leading at halftime by seven points, 34-27, the Blue Jays scored just 16 points over the final two quarters.  JCHS coach Pat Battle said his team needs to do a better job of executing offensively. “It’s been a problem all four games that we’ve played now. We’ve got to trust our offense, and we’ve got to do a better job of executing. It’s that simple. We just did not execute well enough and so we were taking guarded shots.” Battle also stated, “Yeah we had some opportunities in the paint. We didn’t knock them down. That’s true.”

Battle noted the Blue Jays had some good offensive rebounds and chances for stick backs and couldn’t make them.

One positive for Junction City is the defense and rebounding. The Blue Jays out rebounded Hays by nine in the game.

Ironically in the first quarter Ricardo Erans of Junction City and Isaiah Nunnery of Hays both lit up the scoreboard. Erans scored 12 points and Nunnery hit four three-point shots in that period for 12 points.

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In the girls game both teams battled turnovers before Hays pulled away late to win 53-42 over Junction City. Missed free throws were also a problem for the Lady Jays.

Lady Jay coach Derek Petty said, “Yeah, again we had turnovers at inopportune times, and again, we missed free throws down the stretch.”

Junction City trailed by only four points after three quarters but Hays moved on to the win. Alana Kramer led Junction City with 12 points, and A’kia Fain had 11 points. Audra Schmeidler had 15 points to lead Hays.

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Junction City teams host Manhattan Friday night.