By Anthony Gorges
JC Post
The first round of substate basketball ended with heartbreak for Junction City, as the two seed Junction City Blue Jays were stunned by 15 seed Wichita East in overtime by a final score of 75-65.
A couple costly turnovers by Junction City and big shots going in for East helped the Blue Aces lead by three with less than 10 seconds left. Junction City junior guard Jackson Austin knocked down a corner three-pointer to send the game to overtime tied up at 56.
The overtime period saw Wichita East outscore Junction City 19-9 and complete the upset.
Several players scored tonight for the Blue Jays. Sophomore Lovell Autry scored a team high 22 points, Jackson Austin added 14 points, and Larkin Turner scored 12 points.
With the loss, the Blue Jays finish the season with a record of 18-3. Some highlights for this season include winning the Centennial League championship for the first time and 18 regular season wins, the most wins in a regular season.
Junction City had three seniors on the roster for the whole season. Seniors were Sylvester Jackson, Stewart Mitchell, and Tre Ruffin. Another senior that was part of the team prior to leaving at semester, was Michael Boganowski.
As a whole program, freshman, JV, and varsity, the program finished the 2023-2024 basketball season with an overall record of 43-13.