It’s Senior night here at Junction City where all Winter Sport Senior athletes will be recognized at the halftime break. This includes seniors from the Bowling team, Cheer squad and the Dance team.

Senior night also means it’s the last home game of the season for the Blue Jays as they host the Emporia Spartans. This will be the first contest between the two teams this season. Junction City with the second ranked offense despite the worst ranked defense up against Emporia’s second ranked defense and second worst offense in the Centennial League.

Junction City has recently suffered a heart breaker in their last home game as Highland Park put them away with a game winning three pointer at the buzzer, followed by a nine point loss on the road to Seamen.

Emporia however is coming into tonight’s game on a six game losing streak losing by an average twelve points per game. This seems to be a great opportunity for the Blue Jays to close out the special night with a victory.

To start the game, both teams came out slow with multiple turnovers in the first possessions. Nick Arneson was able to put JC on the scoreboard by making a circus shot layup off the top of the backboard while trying to draw a foul.

Emporia shows why their offense is so weak in comparison to the other Centennial League teams with how slow of a pace they play. Junction City struggling early due to both unforced and forced turnovers. With both offenses struggling, the first quarter ends with both teams tied at just 6-6 with Emporia’s six points all coming from free throws.

The second quarter wasn’t much better for either team as Emporia continues with their slow pace offense. They were able to take up nearly a full minute of game clock in one possession for the second time of the game. Emporia scored their first field goal in mid-second quarter.

Luckily for Emporia, their defense kept them in the game as they missed six layups in this first half. After Junction City was able to build up a five point lead, Emporia came back with a 7-2 run to tie up the game 15-15 at the half.

The second half began the same, turnovers and bad looks on offense, both teams unable to get open shots off. Neither team scored for the first three full minutes of the half. After Emporia had taken the lead on a 5-0 run, JC was able to come up with a 5-0 run of their own. These runs led to another tied score at the end of the quarter, both teams at 22.

Halfway through the fourth quarter, Junction City switches to a zone defense, playing 1-2-2 full court press and 3-2 in their half-court defense. This zone defense was able to cut off passing lanes in the Emporia offense, forcing many turnovers and giving JC more opportunities to score.

Emporia was able to stay in the game with the help of free throws and with Ricardo Erans having an ice cold night. After Emporia tied the game up at 34 with free throws they dribbled out the clock and missed their last shot, sending the game into overtime.

Three of the last five games for Junction City, were decided within six points or less. This game, neither team has led by over five points throughout regulation.

Through the first overtime, both teams stayed with each other, taking turns holding the lead. T.J. Poole was able to tie the game up when he drew the foul and knocked down both free throws to send the game into another overtime.

In double overtime, Junction City came out firing after an electric three pointer by T.J. Poole, going on a 9-0 run to go up 49-40. Emporia slowed them down with free throws of their own. The second overtime consisted of 19 total free throws attempted, where much of Emporia’s offense came from.

Junction City was able to close out their last home game of the season with a victory in a slow but thrilling double overtime contest against Emporia. The final score was 51-44.