Junction City to face Charleston

EL DORADO - Two teams with contrasting styles will meet in the opening round of the 3A State Tournament tonight, as Junction City takes on Charleston.

The Dragons (20-9), are the 4-3A’s No. 3 seed, while the Tigers (19-10) are the No. 2 seed from the 1-3A.

While Junction City has hung their hat on defense, the Tigers are a very diverse team on offense.

“Charleston is a very skilled offensive team,” said Junction City coach Kendall Hutcheson. “They’ve got about five guys who can hit the three, and not only hit it, but hit it from really, really deep. They can put it on the floor. They’ve got a great outside game, but they can also attack the basket and play inside. They’re a very tough offensive team.”

Size will be another issue the Dragons will have to contend with.

“They’ve got a lot of size on the floor,” Hutcheson said. “They go about 6-1, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, so they’ve got a lot of length to them. They’re a well-coached, solid basketball team. They don’t turn it over much. They run their offense really, really well.”

Junction City continued its outstanding play on defense in the region-

al tournament. In three games, the Dragons permitted only McGehee to score more than 45 points, but Hutcheson said that his team must execute on offense.

“We’re playing super hard,” Hutcheson said. “It’s kind of been our story for the last month of the season. We’re playing as hard as anybody in the state of Arkansas. I don’t think anybody plays harder than we do. It’s just that you have to play really, really well also.

“Right now, we’re playing really hard, we’re just not playing really well, so we’ve got to fix that and put those two together. I think if we come out and we play better offensively to go along with how hard we play on defense, I think we’ll be a tough team. I think that’s the key for us.

“We have to come out and play solid on offense, and not get stagnant and stand still. When we’re attacking the basket and we’re playing the way we can play, I think we’re tough to defend. We need to make sure we’re standing around for periods of time.”

If the Dragons are to move on, Hutcheson believes his team must rebound well and be solid on offense.

“I think we’ve got to control the boards,” Hutcheson said. “I think we’ve got to be aggressive on offense. We’ve got to make them guard us, not let them guard us. If we make them guard us and we’re really aggressive on offense and we can control the boards, I think we’ll be all right.”