Topeka opened a close game early in the third quarter and moved out to a 13-point lead late in the period. Junction City made a fourth-quarter rally that cut the margin down to five, but could get no closer at Shenk Gym Friday night. The Trojans pulled away again late in the contest to defeat the Blue Jays 74-59.

Topeka High has a tall, athletic basketball team. Blue Jay coach Nick Perez agreed the Trojans are a good team. “They’ve got three guys that have Division I bodies and will probably play Division I sports. ” Perez added Junction City made some good runs. “Again, the mental mistakes are what kills us. We dribble the ball too much.”

The Blue Jays ( 7-6 ) host Emporia Saturday. The varsity boys game should tip off about 6:30 p.m.

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In the girls varsity game Friday night Topeka High overpowered Junction City 72-27 to sweep the regular season series between the two teams. The Lady Jays host Emporia Saturday, with the girls varsity contest beginning about 5 p.m.

Coach Brad Adams has reported that the Junction City Blue Jay boys bowling team finished first in their own triangular at JC Bowl on Thursday with a team score of 2619. Manhattan was second at 2310 and Hayden third at 1994.

In the individual competition Junction City got a standout performance from Ciaran Pricket, with a total score of 782 to finish in first place.

The Lady Jays finished in second place. Manhattan was first at 2124, Junction City 2108 and Hayden 1504. For Junction City Hailey Eschliman finished second in the individual competition at 543 and Cassidy Eschliman third with a score of 539.

The JCHS bowling teams go to the Gage Center Bowl in Topeka for a tournament Friday.

The Junction City Blue Jay boys and girls bowling teams will host a triangular Thursday at JC Bowl. It begins at 3 p.m. On Friday the bowling teams compete at the Gage Center Bowl in Topeka.

The rest of the JCHS sports schedule for this week finds the Blue Jay and Lady Jay basketball teams hosting Topeka High Friday night and Emporia Saturday evening. The varsity games Friday night are scheduled to begin with the girls contest about 6 p.m. and the boys about 7:30 p.m. On Saturday the varsity girls should play at approximately 5 p.m. and the boys about 6:30 p.m. All of the varsity contests can be heard on 107.9 FM and 1420 KJCK.

On Saturday the Blue Jay wrestling team will compete in the Centennial League Tournament at Washburn Rural. The tournament begins at 9 a.m.

The Blue Jay boys swimming team competes in the Manhattan Invitational at the natatorium at Kansas State University. That invitational begins at 10:30 a.m.

The Junction City Blue Jays  got 27 points from A.J. Dickerson enroute to a 50-49 win over the Hayden Wildcats at the Shenk Gym Tuesday night.

Junction City ( 7-5 ) used a 10-0 run to begin the second half to jump out to a nine-point lead. But Hayden behind the shooting of Levi Braun battled back to pull to within one point after three quarters. Then down the stretch Junction City got just enough scoring to go up by four in the closing seconds. Braun hit one last three-point shot to pull Hayden within one with 1.2 seconds remaining. But the Blue Jays were able to successfully inbounds the basketball to Dickerson and hold on for the win.

The game was a bit of a white-knuckler for Blue Jay coach Nate Perez. “I just feel like we do some mental stuff. We turn the ball over and we take some bad shots at times and I think we get a little yantsy on offense.” Perez also stated, ” What we need to understand is when we run offense, and we run it the right way we’re open, and I think we panic a little bit. But I’m proud of our guys and the way we fought.”

Junction City will host Topeka High on Friday and Emporia on Saturday at the Shenk Gym.

The Junction City Lady Jays fell to Topeka West 54-26 on Saturday in the 7th place consolation game at the 2019 Lady Firebirds Winter Classic.  The tournament was hosted by Lawrence Free State.

Junction City will host three games this upcoming week. They will host Hayden on Tuesday, Topeka High on Friday and Emporia on Saturday.

The Junction City Lady Jays fell to Hutchinson 62-17 in the consolation semifinal round of the 2019 Lady Firebirds Winter Classic at Lawrence Free State on Friday.

Junction City will now play in the 7th place consolation game at 10 a.m. Saturday against Topeka West. West fell to Olathe West in the consolation semifinals 65-28.

This will be the second meeting this season between Junction City and Topeka West. The Lady Chargers won the first one over Junction City 48-28 on January 4th at the Shenk Gym at JCHS.

The Junction City Lady Jays fell to Maize 84-23 in the 2019 Lady Firebirds Winter Classic in Lawrence Thursday night.

Junction City will play Hutchinson in a consolation semifinal game at 3 p.m. on Friday.

In other first-round games in the tournament Lawrence Free State defeated Hutchinson 60-45, Blue Valley Southwest rolled by Topeka West 78-19 and Leavenworth defeated Olathe West 62-54.

The Junction City Blue Jay boys basketball games at Topeka High have been rescheduled for Monday, February 11th.

The teams were scheduled to play this past Tuesday night at Topeka High but the games had to be postponed due to inclement weather.  The new times for the games on the 11th include the ninth grade game at 4:30 p.m. in the Topeka High auxiliary gym, the J-V contest at 4:30 p.m. in the main gym and the varsity contest at 6 p.m. in the main gym.

There will not be any girls basketball that night.

The Junction City Lady Jays meet Maize in the first round of the 2019 Lady Firebirds Winter Classic in Lawrence on Thursday.  The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. at Lawrence Free State High School. Maize is the number one seed and Junction City the number eight seed in the tournament.

The other first round pairings have Lawrence Free State against Hutchinson, Leavenworth playing Olathe West and Blue Valley Southwest meeting Topeka West.

The tournament will continue Friday and Saturday.