Junction City had an opportunity to win at the end of the ballgame, but a three point shot by Jonathan Wilds came up short. Manhattan  won 35-32  in boys basketball victory over the Blue Jays at the Shenk Gym.

The Blue Jays had the ball in the closing seconds. Wilds took the shot from just outside the top of the key. Manhattan then got the ball out of bounds with 1.6 seconds remaining, Junction City fouled, and Gabe Awbrey sank two free throws with six-tenth of a second remaining to give the Indians the final winning margin of three points.

Afterwards Blue Jay coach Pat Battle was pleased with the way his team defended in the game. “That’s a team that has got a lot of offensive weapons. To hold them to 35 points is a pretty good job for us defensively.”  Battle added the biggest issue for the Blue Jays involved communication breakdowns on offense.

Junction City led the ballgame 17-14 at halftime, but the Blue Jays were outscored by the Indians 12-2 in the third quarter.

Danny Thornton led Junction City with 13 points and Wilds had nine. Both hit three of their three-point shots in the game.

Alex Stitt had 12 points for Manhattan, including two big three-point baskets late in the third quarter.

Manhattan is 6-2 while Junction City fell to 4-4.

 

The Shenk Gym at Junction City High School will be the site for the high school basketball matchup between JCHS and Manhattan boys and girls teams Friday night.

The Indians are 5-2 in boys play overall, and 1-2 in the Centennial League, while Junction City is 4-3, and 2-1. In the girls contest Manhattan comes in 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the league, while the Lady Jays are 3-4, and 1-2.

 

The new West Stadium Center at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan will be available for public tours beginning Jan. 28, K-State Athletics officials have announced.

Fans will be able to visit the new 215,000 square-foot facility three days a week with two tours each day. The facility will be open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays with with tours beginning at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on each of those days. Each tour will last approximately 45 minutes.

The tour, led by Ahearn Fund Athletic Hospitality staff, will begin outside Gate D where fans will receive informational materials on the facility. The tour will continue through the concourse, highlighting the new Hall of Honor and enhanced restrooms and concessions areas.

Other points of interest during each tour will include a look at the new Student-Athlete Lounge and Ahearn Fund Student-Athlete Performance Table, club and loge level seating and entertaining areas, and also the opportunity to see a “staged” suite.

Upon completion of each tour, fans will exit the West Stadium Center at Gate B near the K-State Super Store at the Stadium.

Reservations for the tours can be made by calling the Ahearn Fund Athletic Hospitality office at 785-532-7952 or by emailing Chelsey Barnes at cbarnes@k-statesports.com.  Some dates may not be available due to previously scheduled athletic events.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Royals have signed former All-Star pitcher Brad Penny and veteran reliever Guillermo Mota to minor league contracts that include invitations to spring training.

The team announced the moves Wednesday. Pitchers and catchers report to camp on Feb. 14 in Surprise, Ariz.

The 35-year-old Penny, whose best years came with the Los Angeles Dodgers, is trying to resurrect his career after missing last season to rest his right shoulder. Penny was 0-1 with a 6.11 ERA in 2012 with the San Francisco Giants.

Mota has been with seven different clubs, most recently the Giants. The right-hander is 39-45 with a 3.94 ERA over 14 seasons. He is coming off a 100-game suspension for a second positive drug test. His agent says it was for clenbuterol found in children’s cough syrup.

 

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – The game plan for security at this year’s Super Bowl will include deployment of nearly 4,000 local police and private security officers, airport-style screening for those entering MetLife Stadium and a host of other measures visible and invisible to the average fan, law enforcement officials said at a briefing on Wednesday at the stadium.

The plan has been in the works for more than two years and relies in part on lessons learned at past Super Bowls, including the power outage at the 2013 game in New Orleans.

“That’s one of the things we took a hard look at,” said Col. Rick Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

This year, officials are working closely with utility companies to ensure there’s ample backup power. Sanitation agencies also are in the mix, with the plan calling for 900 snow plows to be on standby if needed to keep the roads open on game day, Feb. 2.

Up to 700 state troopers will be on patrol in and around the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, Fuentes said. The National Football League is providing 3,000 private officers to bolster security.

The officers have rehearsed during the past year “for all kinds of types of situations, whether crime was afoot or the weather went off the rails,” Fuentes said.

Behind the scenes, FBI analysts manning a command center with surveillance camera feeds and computer data will work around the clock on the week of the game to monitor potential terror threats, said Aaron Ford, head of the FBI’s Newark office. Heavily armed tactical teams, bomb squads and hostage negotiators will be ready to respond if necessary, he added.

The FBI and other agencies have “prepared for just about every contingency we can possibly think of to ensure this is a safe and secure event,” he said. “Much of the work will go unnoticed.”

In New York City, there will be beefed-up security at several pre-Super Bowl parties and other events. The New York Police Department will deploy extra patrols, bomb-sniffing dogs and helicopters to secure “Super Bowl Boulevard,” a three-day NFL extravaganza in Manhattan on Broadway between 47th and 34th streets, NYPD Bureau Chief James Waters said.

For an event that’s been billed as the first mass transit Super Bowl, fans will have to present their tickets to the game before they can board buses or trains headed to the East Rutherford facility. The NFL also is urging fans not to take any bags.

Once at the stadium, fans will be directed into temporary outdoor pavilions at the edge of a security perimeter 300 feet from the entrances.

The officials said at least 100 government agencies were involved in the security effort, but they gave no estimate on how much it would cost.

The conference championships are Sunday. The New England Patriots will play the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game, and the San Francisco 49ers will face the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game.

 

There will be an American Legion Baseball Breakfast on Saturday, Feb. 8 in Junction City.

Open to the public, it will be held at the American Legion Post Home at 4th and Franklin from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Funds raised will support the local summer baseball program that includes the two American Legion teams, the Hawks and the Blues.

The menu for the breakfast will include biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and hash browns, sausages, coffee, and juice.

 

 

Topeka High hit seven of ten free throws  in the fourth quarter enroute to a 43-36 win over the Junction City Lady Jays in girls basketball at the Shenk Gym.  

Mandy Madden led the Trojans with 15 points enroute to the win. Adrianna Henderson had 12.

For Junction city both Kori Kamm and Kealee Rains scored 10 points.

The Lady Jays are 3-4 overall and 1-2 in Centennial League play, while Topeka High improved to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the conference.

Jonathan Wilds hit a shot with 3.6 seconds remaining to lift the Junction City Blue Jays to a 60-59 win over the Topeka High Trojans.

A late shot by Shon Sanders of Topeka High was no good and Junction City prevailed at the Shenk Gym for their fourth win in seven tries this season.

The fourth quarter was a bit bizarre. Junction City was ahead by 14 points 54-42 when the Trojans went on a run to take a two point lead.  In the closing minutes Junction City got two baskets from Ja-Male Morrow and the Trojans got a three-point bucket from Joshua Barber that put Topeka High ahead 59-58.

In the final 20 seconds  Wilds came down the left side of the court,veered into toward the free throw lane before putting up the game winning shot.  After the game Blue Jay coach Pat Battle noted scary didn’t begin to describe the closing minutes of the victory. “If there’s one thing our kids did tonight they played hard for the entire 32 minutes, there’s no question about it. ”

Battled noted the Blue Jays didn’t execute well all the time, but played with a lot of heart.  The coach said he knew the late run by the Trojans was coming. “We didn’t do enough things with our possessions to limit that run. I knew that run was coming somewhere during the course of the game.”

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – Marcus Foster scored 18 points, Nino Williams made four clinching free throws in the closing seconds and Kansas State held on to beat No. 25 Oklahoma 72-66 on Tuesday night.

Shane Southwell added 16 points for the Wildcats (13-4, 3-1 Big 12), who rallied from a 62-56 deficit with just over 5 minutes to play to turn back the streaking Sooners.

Ryan Spangler had a career-high 21 points and 14 rebounds, and Buddy Hield scored 12 points for Oklahoma (13-4, 2-2), but it wasn’t enough to offset a lousy night by Cameron Clark.

The Big 12’s leading scorer, Clark was held to two points on 1-for-9 shooting. He was stripped of the ball with 24.5 seconds left and the Sooners trailing 67-64.

The turnover forced Oklahoma to foul, and Williams made both free throws. Je’lon Hornbeak missed a 3-pointer at the other end and the Sooners fouled Williams, and again he knocked down both foul shots to help seal the game.

Wesley Iwundu added 11 points for Kansas State while Williams and Will Spradling finished with 10 points apiece.

The Sooners, the highest scoring team in the Big 12, got the up-and-down game they wanted in the first half. The only problem was that Kansas State, which tends to struggle offensively but is the league’s best on defense, was knocking down shots from all over the court.

The Wildcats hit 3-pointers on five straight trips midway through the first half. Foster had the first three, thumping his chest on his way back to the bench after the last of them.

Kansas State eventually pushed its lead to 28-19 on Iwundu’s 3-pointer before the Sooners started to find some success in the paint. Isaiah Cousins’ driving layup started an 18-5 run over the next 7 minutes, capped by Hield’s basket for a 37-33 lead.

The Wildcats answered with a 3 by Southwell, and Spradling was fouled just before the halftime buzzer and made three free throws to give Kansas State a 39-38 lead.

Oklahoma slowly took control in the second half as the Wildcats cooled off. Spangler’s three-point play with 6 1/2 minutes left gave the Sooners a 58-56 lead, and a breezy jumper by Cousins from just inside the 3-point arc extended the lead with about 5 minutes to play.

Once more, Kansas State clawed right back.

Big man Thomas Gipson stuck back a miss by Southwell for his first field goal with 2:59 left in the game to knot it 63-all. Foster then buried a 3-pointer from right in front of Kansas State coach Bruce Weber to give the Wildcats a 66-63 lead.

They managed to hold onto the lead through a tense closing stretch.

Junction City High School senior Rosie Hollis has been named a Class 6A cross country academic all-state selection by the Kansas Cross Country and Track Coaches Association.

The information was released by JCHS Athletic Director Matt Westerhaus.