The gym at Lubbock Christian University on Friday night was the scene of some breakneck basketball as the Jayton Jaybirds survived a very aggressive Klondike Cougars squad en route to the regional quarterfinals championship, 41 to 40.
The game unfolded with the Jaybirds executing their brand of disciplined and choreographed offense to the tune of a 17–10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Then, the Cougars clawed their way back in their own quarter of 17 points while holding Jayton to eight in the second.
And when the action subsided, Klondike had a two-point lead to take into the locker room at halftime, 27 to 25. But no one in the arena felt like the game was anywhere near decided.
Jayton came back out in the second half and reestablished control of the contest, outscoring Klondike 13 to 5 in the third quarter to head into the fourth 38 to 32.
Then, in the final period Klondike left it all on the court as they attacked the Jaybirds with a full court press for seemingly the whole quarter. Coach Ryan Bleiker and Jayton fans might have wished that some of the Cougars’ more aggressive moves had drawn foul calls from the referees, but a couple of fortuitous Cougar fouls with less than a minute to go allowed the Jaybird to eke out a win, even though Klondike knotted up the game twice in the final minutes.
Jayton’s 41 to 40 victory earned them a ticket to the state semifinals Tuesday night in Canyon versus Texline.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.
