The Junction City Lady Jays will play Wichita South in the first round of the 2017 Firebird Winter Classic in Lawrence on Thursday, January 26th. Tipoff is set for 4:45 p.m.
The other first-round matchups have Lawrence Free State playing Wichita Northwest, Topeka Seaman meeting Hutchinson and Kansas City Schlagle playing Shawnee Mission South.
The tournament continues on Friday and Saturday January 27th and 28th.
The Junction City Blue Jay and Lady Jay basketball games scheduled against Emporia Friday night, January 13th, were cancelled due to concerns about inclement weather.
JCHS Athletics Director Matt Westerhaus has informed JCPost.com that the games will be made up on Saturday, Feb. 4th. The schedule includes:
–In the Shenk Gym the JV girls game at 2 p.m., varsity girls at 3:45, and the varsity boys at 5:30 p.m.
–In the Fiffe Gym the JV boys at 2 p.m., ninth grade boys contest at 3:30 and the ninth grade girls at 5 p.m.
The Junction City Blue Jays were in 18th place out of 24 teams in the Newton Tournament of Champions after day one of the tournament on Friday. Junction City had 57.5 points. Dodge City was in first with 137 points.
The Blue Jays did not compete in day two of the tournament. They returned to Junction City after the competition on Friday due to concerns about the possibility of inclement weather over the weekend.
The Junction City Blue Jay boy basketball team has drawn Shawnee Mission South in the first round of the Tournament of Champions on January 19th. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
The rest of the first round pairings include Holcomb vs. Newton, Derby meets Bishop Carroll and Dodge City plays Wichita North.
The tournament continues on Friday January 20th and Saturday January 21st.
The Junction City Blue Jays were ahead by one point late midway through the second quarter before the Washburn Rural Junior Blues went on a 12-0 run that helped them to a 43-31 lead over the Blue Jays at halftime. The Junior Blues went on to defeat Junction City 85-62 in Topeka Tuesday night.
A strong shooting Washburn Rural team hit eight 3-point baskets enroute to the victory. Sam Wingert led the Junior Blues with 18 points.
For Junction City A.J. Dickerson started off by scoring 13 of the first 15 points scored by the Blue Jays in the ballgame. But foul woes caused him to spend some time on the bench. He came back in the second half to score 10 more points, and wound up with 23 to lead all scorers.
The Blue Jays fell to 2-7 and 0-4 in the Centennial League, while Washburn Rural improved to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
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In the girls varsity game Washburn Rural sophomore Carly Bachelor poured in 30 points against Junction City enroute to a 66-45 win over the Lady Jays.
Junction City was led by 17 points from Briona Jensen, who hit five 3-point shots in the game.
The Lady Jays fell to 2-0 and 0-4 in the Centennial league. Washburn Rural is 5-2 overall.
Led by 25 points from Tanyon Schafer the Seaman Vikings rolled to a 61-44 victory over the Junction City Blue Jays Friday night at the Shenk Gym.
The Vikings’ post player scored inside and outside including a pair of 3-point shots to help Seaman improve to 5-1, while the Blue Jays fell to 2-5.
Junction City coach Nate Schmitt noted the performance by Schafer was expected. “That kid’s been playing since he was a freshman. He’s very confident at this level, and he’s doing a good job. The only frustrating thing is we predicted every single move he was going to make, and we tried to make the adjustment at halftime. Sometimes, 16-17 year old kids it doesn’t register the first time, so I was a little disappointed in the way we defended him in the second half, but overall he’s a good player and he did a good job tonight.”
The Blue jays were led by A.J. Dickerson with 13 points while A.J. Range had 12 points.
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In the girls varsity basketball game at the Shenk Gym Seaman defeated Junction City 57-43. Seaman opened up a six point lead at halftime and then outscored the Lady Jays 13-8 in the third quarter, and gradually pulled away.
Katera Mayfield had 15 and Megan Sumner 13 points for Seaman, with Sumner hitting four 3-point shots.
Junction City ( 2-5 ) got 11 points from Brianna Jensen and 10 from Ally McGuire.
The Junction City Blue Jay boys basketball team will be wearing old Blue Jay uniforms when they host the Topeka Seaman Vikings Friday night at the Shenk Gym.
JCHS coach Nate Schmitt is encouraging anyone that wants to participte to wear their old high school items as well.
The Lady Jays varsity will host Seaman at approximately 6 p.m. with the boys game following about 7:45 p.m.
The Topeka West guard duo of Elijah Griffin and Koriyon Carr combined for 36 points and led the Chargers to a 68-63 boys basketball win over the Junction City Blue Jays at the Shenk Gym.
The Chargers took advantage of numerous Blue jay turnovers in the ballgame, which saw Junction City rally from a big early first quarter deficit to within one point twice in the second half. A.J. Range of Junction City had numerous scoring opportunities around the rim and was often fouled in the process. He wound up with 21 points to lead the Blue Jays, while teammate Lonnie Autry finished with 16 points.
The Blue Jays fell to 2-4 with the loss, while Topeka West improved to 2-3.
In the girls varsity game Junction City was a 47-30 winner over Topeka West.
The Lady Jays were led by Alana Kramer with 18 points, with 14 of those coming in the first half. Junction City improved to 2-4, while Topeka West fell to 3-2.
The head coach for the Junction City Blue Jay boys basketball team, Nate Schmitt, has announced that he is buying t-shirts for the first 150 students who attend the game between Junction City and Topeka West Tuesday night at the Shenk Gym.
Schmitt also said Friday is Throwback Night, when the Blue Jays will be wearing old uniforms. They are encouraging anyone that wants to participate and wear their old high school “stuff” do to so. The Blue Jays host Topeka Seaman Friday night,
There were similarities for both the Junction City Lady Jay and Blue Jay basketball teams in their losses to Hays Tuesday night. Both teams struggled to score in the second quarter.
The Lady Jays ( 1-3 ) fell to Hays 63-56. After one quarter the Indians ( 4-1 ) led Junction City by two points, 18-16. In the second period Hays pulled ahead by a 16-point margin 43-27 at halftime. In the second half the Lady Jays cut the margin to three on two occasions but could get no closer.
JCHS girls coach Derek Petty said his team came out ready to play in the first quarter. “We relaxed a little bit in the second quarter, we committed a lot of fouls, turnovers for no reason and we let them get a big lead. In the third quarter the Lady Jays outscored Hays 17-6. Ally McKenzie scored 15 points and Alana Kramer 12 points for Junction City.
In the boys contest Junction City ( 2-2 ) lost to Hays ( 5-0 ) 62-52. In the second quarter turnovers were a problem for the Blue Jays when they were outscored 18-8. JCHS boys coach Nate Schmitt felt that getting a shot on every possession was one of their goals, and they did that in the first quarter and second half. “That second quarter for some reason we just weren’t getting any good looks and turning the basketball over and just struggling to score the ball.”
The Blue Jays and Lady Jays play at Manhattan Friday night.