Junction City Blue Jay wrestler Aryus Jones went 4-0 in dual competition at the Emporia Dual Wrestling Tournament.
Jones is coming off a severe leg injury in football that had kept him out of action the first part of the wrestling season.
The Blue Jays as a team went 1-4 in the dual competition. But Max Bazan finished 3-2 at 113 pounds and Kamari Smith went 3-2 at 152 pounds.
The Bishop Carroll Eagles used a stout defense to hold Junction City to a shooting percentage of just 35-percent from the field enroute to a 58-45 win over the Blue Jays on Saturday in the third-place consolation game of the McPherson Invitational.
Junction City ( 5-7 ) trailed throughout the ballgame.
Blue Jay coach Pat Battle thought going into the contest it might be a physical type game. “To make a football analogy offensively for sure we were able to move the ball between the 20’s but we had problems in the red zone.” Junction City missed a number of shots in the lane near the basket.
Tyrone Poole led the Blue Jays with 16 points, while Ricardo Erans had 13. Bishop Carroll had a 50-percent shooting field goal shooting percentage for the game.
Junction City finished fourth in the tournament. McPherson captured first place with a 63-54 win over Lawrence Free State in the championship game.
Shawnee Heights post player Jazz Sweet scored 33 points to lead her team to a 67-53 win over the Junction City Lady Jay basketball team Friday night at the Shenk Gym.
Shawnee Heights ( 9-1 ) jumped out to an 18-8 first quarter lead and then moved on to get the win.
The Lady Jays ( 0-10 ) will play in the Glacier’s Edge Classic in Emporia next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The Junction City Blue Jays ( 5-6 ) led Lawrence Free State ( 9-1 ) by seven points at halftime and appeared in control in the third quarter before the Firebirds rallied back to defeat them 61-53 in the winner’s bracket semifinal round of the McPherson Invitational.
A Blue Jay possession in the third quarter did not produce points and an ensuing battle for the basketball ended with an exchange of words and a technical foul on a Blue Jay player. That produced four points for Free State….two via free throws and a following field goal. The Firebirds went on from there to win the game.
Blue Jay coach Pat Battle said, “The big thing is, kind of lost our poise there in the third – early fourth.” But Battle also noted he was proud of the way his players competed. “They fought really hard, and quite honestly execution-wise it was our best night. We really ran some great things tonight.”
Firebird guard Hunter Gudde was a major problem for the Blue Jays. He scored 37 points in the contest, and hit 21 of 23 free throw attempts. In the fourth quarter alone as Free State controlled the basketball and the lead, forcing Junction City to foul, Gudde hit 12 of 14 free throw attempts.
The Blue Jays play Wichita-Bishop Carroll in the third place consolation game in the tournament on Saturday at 5 p.m. Lawrence Free State will advance to meet McPherson in the title game Saturday night.
The Junction City Lady Jay basketball team will play a home game against Shawnee Heights Friday night at the Shenk Gym.
The Lady Jays will try to defeat the Thunderbirds after losing an earlier meeting at Shawnee Heights 64-36 two weeks ago. The varsity game will tip off at about 7:45 p.m.
The Junction City Lady Jay basketball team will play Leavenworth in the first round of the Glacier’s Edge Girls Basketball Tournament January 28th. The tournament will also continue on the 29th and 30th.
Other first round pairings find Emporia playing Hutchinson, Eisenhower vs. Topeka West, and Olathe South against Wichita Southeast.
The game between Junction City and Leavenworth on the 28th is scheduled at 5:30 p.m.
In a grind it out type of game the Junction City Blue Jays ( 4-5 ) relied on their defense to defeat the Washburn Rural Junior Blues ( 2-7 ) in basketball Friday night at the Shenk Gym by a score of 46-37.
Blue Jay coach Pat Battle felt the defense keyed the win. “Thirty-seven points, and they’ve got some explosive there. They’ve got some kids who flat shoot it, and I thought our kids did a good job of communicating, working, and arriving when the ball arrived. We really emphasize that.”
Senior Ricardo Erans led the Blue Jays with 17 points while Jenner Hickel had 14 for Washburn Rural. It was the second consecutive win for Junction City, following a victory over Highland Park on Tuesday.
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In the girls varsity game Washburn Rural ( 6-2 ) jumped out on top of Junction City ( 0-9 ) 27-18 at halftime, and then opened up a big lead in the third quarter enroute to a 65-53 victory over the Lady Jays. Junction City cut the final margin down considerably in the fourth quarter after training by 23 points at the end of the third quarter.
Kealee Rains scored 16 points for Junction City, while A’kia Fain and Ally Mckenzie both had 11 for the Lady Jays. Carly Bachelor led Washburn Rural with 21 points.
The Friday night high school basketball schedule finds:
–Junction City hosting Washburn Rural
–Manhattan hosting Highland Park
–Emporia at Topeka West
–Council Grove visits Lyndon
–Herington hosting West Franklin
–Abilene at Clay Center
–Chapman at Concordia
–Marysville at Wamego
–Shawnee Heights hosts Seaman
–Rural Vista hosts Centre
–Riley County hosts Silver Lake
–Topeka High goes to Hayden
–Wakefield is at Goessel
The Junction Blue Jay boys bowling team won a quadrangular hosted by Topeka HIgh at Gage Bowl in the capitol city Wednesday.
Junction City finished with a team score of 2,548, followed by Shawnee Heights at 2,477, Washburn rural 2,427, and Topeka High 2,049. For the Blue Jays sophomore Tyler Gromlovits finished first in the individual competition with a score of 712. JCHS teammage Will Wriston finished fourth with a score of 609.
In the girls competition the Lady Jays finished second. Shawnee Heights finished first with a score of 2,305, followed by Junction City 2,285, Washburn Rural 2,225, and Topeka High 2,194. For the Lady Jays Ryan Coffman finished third with a score of 607.