Blue Jay basketball is finally here with a new roster that is bringing high expectations for this season to bring JC their first winning record since the 2007-08 team coached by Charles Glotta. Last season Junction City had the fourth best offense but the third worst defense.

Junction City had started their basketball season with an expected victory over Dodge City 52-44. This was a payback victory for last year losing to Dodge, 63-62. This was also the first season opener Junction has won since 2007.

Coming into the home opener against Salina Central, Junction City was confident in their defense after holding Dodge City to only 44 points.

This was the first game for Salina Central this season. They had beaten Junction City in their first game last season 82-72.

The starters for Junction City were Reggie Topps, Christian Ozores, Ricardo Erans, Nick Arneson and Xavier Cason.

The Blue Jays started the game with high intensity and good ball movement scoring a very quick seven points off assists and defensive plays. Ricardo Erans finished off the quarter shaking his defender off balance with a spin move, and finishing with the acrobatic layup. This put JC in an 11-7 first quarter lead and sparking the Blue Jay student section.

Despite the momentous finish of the first quarter, Salina Central quickly took the lead of the game with a three pointer and a layup off an offensive rebound.

With turnovers and shooting fouls costing Junction City scoring opportunities, Christian Ozores quickly makes up for a JC turnover with a great recovery charge. This gave the Blue Jays a possession in which Xavier Cason scores on to retake the lead 13-12.

After a game tying free throw by Salina Central, Jovon Baldwin steals the ball and uses his speed to score on a fastbreak layup.

Following more free throws from Salina, Ricardo makes a great pass while falling, to Josh Hall who gets the layup to retake the lead at 17-16. This would be the last time Junction City leads in this game.

Giving up four more free throws to Salina, Junciton City’s Ricardo Erans fakes a pass to lose a defender and scores on the baseline up and under to bring JC within a point at 19-20.

The first half ends off a last minute layup by Lonnie Autry to bring JC to just a 24-26 deficit.

A quiet third quarter for both teams, Junction City gives up only ten points, five of them being free throws. Salina gives up only eight to JC, five of them being free throws. JC managed to stay alive through the quarter with their hustle play and ability to draw fouls, despite Salina Central dominating the offensive boards.

The Blue Jays started off slow with two unforced turnovers and giving up seven unanswered points to Salina.

With SC showing great defense and rim protection altering all of Junction’s shots in the paint, Coach Battle subs in a more athletic lineup with Ozores, Baldwin, Erans, Cason and Hall.

Finally, JC scores their first points of the fourth quarter with a fastbreak layup by Josh Hall with 4:58 left in the quarter putting an end to a 12-1 run lead by Salina Central’s Jd Mchenry.

As the game began to get out of hand, Junction began to play a full court press defense. This brought even more fouls giving SC more free throws.

Junction City clearly frustrated, nearly gives up a dunk to Mchenry. As Topps attempts to block the dunk he fouls Mchenry and begins to approach Mchenry and get in his face verbally attacking him. This gave up technical free throws along with the shooting foul free throws that put SC up 34-52.

As the tempo for the SC offense was rising throughout the game, Mchenry drives to the basket and dunks the ball over Baldwin who made a failed block attempt causing an uproar in the SC fans.

This was the dagger that capped off a great run by SC. The game finished off with JC giving up six more free throws to SC while SC gives up 8 points while trying to eat the rest of the clock away.

Junction City lost with a final score of 42-60. Salina Central scored 28 of their 60 points on free throws. Whether this was an aberration or not, this fouling problem by JC will need to be fixed if they want to win games this season.

Junction City will be playing on the road this Friday against Great Bend, a team who went 2-18 last season. The Blue Jays are the clear favorites in this game. This game is a great opportunity for JC to jumpstart their season to gain momentum and win games.