Junction City ready to take on Prescott

One year ago, Junction City upended Prescott in the opening round of the regional tournament to secure a berth in the state tournament.

Now the Dragons are hoping history will repeat itself.

Tonight, the Dragons and Curley Wolves renew acquaintances in the opening round of the 4-3A Regional Tournament at Fordyce.

As was the case in last year’s meeting, the Dragons (16-10) enter as the No. 3 seed from the 8-3A, while the Curley

Wolves (10-17) are the 7-3A’s No. 2 seed.

Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. Although Prescott enters the regional tournament with a losing record, the Curley Wolves played a host of schools in higher classes as part of a very difficult non-conference schedule, and Junction City coach Kendall Hutcheson had plenty of praise for the Dragons‘ opponent.

"They're a very talented basketball team," Hutcheson said. "They have good size to them, they're athletic and they play really good defense. They played a really tough schedule, especially early in the year. I think they played nothing but 4A, 6A and 7A teams. I think they really toughened up their schedule to try and get ready for this time of year."

Junction City won last year’s encounter 52-38 at Prescott behind a stellar defensive effort and 18 points from Jalen Davis.

But when preparing for the Curley Wolves, Hutcheson said he didn’t use last year’s contest as a reference.

"You pretty much just start all over when you look at matchups and what you have going on," Hutcheson said.

"They run a little bit of different stuff and we run a little bit of different stuff than we did last year. You just start from scratch, watch film, get scouting reports and then prepare like it's a totally different team."

The Dragons clinched their spot in the regional tournament by topping Fordyce, but their run ended with an overtime loss to McGehee.

Despite the setback, Hutcheson saw several positives from his team.

"I thought in the McGehee game, we really played under control," Hutcheson said. "We really played like we needed to play. We did some stuff that we've been trying to work on and tighten up and improve on as we've been going along. We really hadn't been doing some of the things we needed to. In that game, we really showed signs of figuring it out, and doing what we needed to do. Hopefully, we can carry that over."

If Junction City is to top Prescott for the second straight year, Hutcheson said his team must play well offensively.

"For us, it's going to be patience on offense and whether or not we get in a hurry or we stay focused on what we're doing," Hutcheson said.

"I think sometimes on offense, we get in a little bit of a hurry and get rushed a little bit, so if we'll be patient and attack when we got it and pull it when we don't, I think we'll be OK."