SAN ANTONIO—Their West Texas hometowns only 50 miles apart as the crow flies, Jayton and Benjamin played an even closer title game at the Alamodome in the 1-A UIL State Boys Basketball championship March 9. The Jaybirds, runners-up in 2023, had a much happier bus ride home to Kent County this year with gold medals draped around their necks. Head coach Ryan Bleiker and his talented young team defeated the Mustangs in a thriller, 60-53.
“I know last year the ride home on the bus was pretty difficult,” Bleiker said. “It’s so hard to get to the state tournament and so hard to get to the championship game. You never want to leave those games out there because you don’t know if you’ll get back. So it’s really, really good to get here and get a win, especially in the ways these guys gutted it out.”
The win is particularly sweet for Bleiker, whose Jayton teams are no stranger to basketball playoffs in February and March. The Jaybirds have earned four trips to basketball’s Big Dance (2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024). This year’s appearance produced the first boys’ basketball state title in school history.
“Just an awesome performance by our guys. We talk about a lot how we know when it’s the biggest and brightest, they’re going to play their best,” Bleiker said. “We certainly saw that out of these guys.”
Colt Gentry, Most Valuable Player of the title game, got the opening tip for the Jaybirds and quickly gave his team the lead with a pull-up jumper. Benjamin answered with Jules Pugi’s three-point basket. Jayton would not score again until the 4:46 mark, when a Mustang turnover led to a Sean Stanaland jumper to make it an 8-4 Benjamin lead. After seven lead changes in the quarter, Benjamin had a 15-14 edge after the first eight minutes of play.
The Mustangs extended their lead to six points early in the second quarter, but then the Jaybirds took flight. The ensuing 10-0 Jayton run was impressive, but it was the defense that stole the show. After Mustang Keegan Hayes’ second-chance jumper at the 6:10 mark of the period, the Jaybirds gave up no points to the Mustangs before halftime. Benjamin’s leading scorer, Grayson Rigdon, was only 4-15 with 13 points at intermission as Jayton took a 27-23 at the half.
“Our goal was to make Rigdon work for everything he got,” Bleiker said. “I thought our gap defense was excellent. I thought our help was excellent.”
Benjamin found the basket in the third quarter, as the Mustangs regrouped and put up 20 points. Rigdon’s third three-pointer of the game, with 1:43 remaining, made it a 43-37 lead for the Knox County team. The Jaybirds, just as they did in the regional final, kept calm and carried on. Gentry found Griff Reel in the paint for a driving layup, and Stanaland converted a Benjamin turnover on another layup with an assist from Ayden Salazar to narrow the lead to 43-41 at quarter’s end.
Beginning fourthquarter play, Gentry stole the ball and found Salazar open for a threepoint swish that energized Jaybird faithful as Jayton grabbed the lead once again, 44-43. Gentry owned the fourth quarter, going 4-5 from the field and sinking two crucial free throws with 2:28 to break a tie and put Jayton up 54-52.
Benjamin would go two minutes without a score in this final stretch until Rigdon’s free throw with forty seconds remaining in the game. Stanaland added the finishing touch with a fast break layup for the 60-53 scoreboard win.
The significance of that scoreboard sight was not lost on Reel.
“When we were walking off the court last year, actually me and these four guys were looking at the scoreboard, and we said we knew we were going to be back,” Reel said. “We said ‘Look at that scoreboard and remember that score, remember this feeling.’ I feel like coming in this year we had a different mentality of ‘this is our time.’” Bleiker’s starting lineup is young. Only Justin Collins, who hit two 3’s at key moments in the contest, is a senior. Gentry, the 6’2” sophomore MVP, finished with 19 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
“It’s something I dreamed of ever since I was a little kid playing on my mini goal,” Gentry said, “but to finally be here and get that done, it feels really great.”
Stanaland, also a sophomore, scored 14 in the championship game, as did junior Salazar. Reel, another junior, led the Jaybirds with eight rebounds and also scored seven points.
In Jayton’s semifinal game against Fayetteville the Thursday before, the matchup was never in doubt. The 65-26 blowout was led by Stanaland, whose 32 points alone exceeded the opponent’s team score. The sophomore guard shot 12-20 from the field and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. He also contributed seven assists en route to being named to the 1-A State Tournament Team.
The Jaybirds close out the season with a 38-3 record. Without a doubt, this last win will be the first thing on the minds of Jayton fans for some time.
