Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Brendan Barrett goes up for a layup during a boys basketball game against Junction City on Dec. 2 at Free State High School.
Free State Firebirds’ head coach Dwayne Paul was left with more questions than answers following Tuesday night’s 64-51 season-opening loss to the visiting Junction City Blue Jays.
Specifically, Paul questioned his squad’s overall effort. He said that in his opinion, “our varsity guys were the one team I felt like didn’t [consistently] play hard tonight,” adding that he had no such qualms with his freshman and junior varsity teams.
Junction City guards Lovell Autry and Jayden Thompson controlled the tempo from the opening tip, spearheading a 16-2 run to open the game. And while the Blue Jays knocked down their first four shots from the field, Free State was off-target on its first five attempts.
“We came out and started the game [with] our first five shot attempts from three, without any flowing offense,” Paul said.
… “We weren’t patient enough. We didn’t have the toughness to pass up the ‘good for the great’ — we were taking the first open shot.”
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State head coach Dwayne Paul communicates with his players from the bench area during a boys basketball game against Junction City on Dec. 2 at Free State High School.
Facing a 28-12 deficit, Free State began to thaw out offensively in the second quarter. A barrage of 3-pointers from Bennett Nagel, Brendan Barrett, Jayden Williams and Jaydon Cook trimmed the Blue Jays’ advantage to 38-29 at the half.
The Firebirds closed the gap to 43-37 late in the third quarter, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way. Autry, an honorable mention All-State selection as a junior, dazzled with his coast-to-coast quickness as the game wore on. Rather than giving up easy fastbreak points to Junction City’s dynamic backcourt duo, Free State frequently sent Autrey to the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. He drained five of his seven attempts as Junction City pushed its lead back to double-digits en route to victory.
Paul indicated the fact that the Firebirds remained close despite having “played bad” for stretches is a pattern that has persisted during his three seasons guiding the Firebirds.
“I’m tired of being here at Free State and getting to a place of leaving the game and saying ‘we were the better team, we should have won the game if we did ‘A,B and C,’” he explained. “So at what point in time are we going to start making the changes to win those games?”
Paul added that until his underclassmen figure out “how to play this level of winning basketball at a high level consistently, we’re going to be really up and down.”
“I love my guys, but that’s what you’re going to get when you have [this] amount of freshmen and sophomores playing at this level,” he said, noting that three sophomores and a freshman were allotted heavy rotational minutes.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Bennett Nagel drives toward the basket during a boys basketball game against Junction City on Dec. 2 at Free State High School.
The Firebirds shot a frigid 18-of-51 from the field [35%] and 7-of-22 [32%] from long-range, and 8-of-17 from the free throw line [47%]. Sophomore point guard Barrett concluded with a team-high 13 points while Nagel tallied 12 points, two assists, a steal and a block. Ethan Prescott chipped in nine rebounds and three assists.
Junction City drilled 22 of its 43 attempts from the field [52%] and hit 15-of-22 free throws. Autry notched a game-high 20 points, while Thompson and Jackson Hollie also recorded double-figure scoring totals.
“We outrebounded them [32 to 24], but they doubled us up at the free throw line,” Paul said.
“… We missed a lot of layups and free throws, and that will always hurt you.”
The Firebirds return to the court Dec. 11 for the Garden City Roundball Classic.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Pack McDaniel starts to go up for layup during a boys basketball game against Junction City on Dec. 2 at Free State High School.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Brendan Barrett attempts a 3-point shot during a boys basketball game against Junction City on Dec. 2 at Free State High School.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Brayden DeBruin corrals a loose ball after diving to the floor during a boys basketball game against Junction City on Dec. 2 at Free State High School.
