There was no shortage of offense Tuesday night at Jefferson City High School.
The Battle Spartans and Jefferson City Jays combined for 23 runs on 27 hits, but the Spartans held on late for a 12-11 victory in Central Missouri Activities Conference play.
It is not very often a team gets to end its basketball season with a win. While it was not in the game the Jefferson City Jays wanted to be in Saturday, the Jays concluded their season with a 79-76 victory against the Pembroke Hill Raiders at Great Southern Bank Arena to grab third place in Class 5.
The Jefferson City Jays fell behind the eight ball early and were never able to quite recover. The Jays took a 2-0 lead but that would be their only lead of the game, as the Ladue Rams gained control with a 13-0 run and held on for a 69-56 victory Friday in the Class 5 semifinals at Hammons Student Center.
The Jefferson City Jays will take the court as one of the last four teams still standing in Class 5 at 4 p.m. today against the Ladue Rams at Hammons Student Center on Missouri State’s campus in Springfield.
While it is the first Final Four appearance since 2004 for the Jays, they are nowhere near satisfied with just making it there.
The Jefferson City Jays have thrived in their zone defense all season long, but a switch to man-to-man was the reason they won the Class 5 District 5 Tournament title Monday night at Capital City High School. The St. Francis Borgia Knights had the basketball down by two with 7.4 seconds left when the Jays called a timeout and switched into man. Cole Heller jumped a passing lane and collected a tip from sophomore Jordan Martin for the steal that sent Jefferson City to a 69-65 victory and into the state tournament.