Jays lose another close game in Classic

The Jefferson City Jays are familiar with playing in close games right after the Christmas break.

And they are also familiar with an unfavorable outcome.

Jefferson City suffered its third loss by two points or fewer dating back to last year in the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic after Raytown South rallied late to claim a 54-53 win against the Jays on Saturday in the first round of the tournament at Fleming Fieldhouse.

"Yeah, it's frustrating," Jefferson City coach Blair Thompson said. "You can stay positive and keep talking about the things you're trying to get across. You can only hope that the kids keep on battling after so many close losses that we've experienced."

Jefferson City, which has now lost its opening-round matchup by single digits for four straight years, opened tournament play last season with a 47-45 loss to Oxford (Miss.) before falling to Helias 70-68 in double overtime in the second round.

The Jays (2-4) put themselves in position to win their opener this year, leading Raytown South (6-1) by four with 3:53 to play. But the Cardinals hit five free throws and a field goal while limiting Jefferson City to two points the rest of the way to earn the victory.

"I think it was a matter of, not only them getting to the line, but getting to the line and making their free throws," Thompson said. "We didn't. We didn't shoot the ball well at all from the free-throw line and we haven't all year. It's a problem."

The Jays, who have dropped four straight games, were 7-of-12 from the line and missed their only opportunity in the final period. Raytown South was 14-of-22 - 8-of-10 in the final eight minutes.

O.G. Anunoby scored a game-high 24 points to lead the offensive attack for Jefferson City, which was 21-of-46 (46 percent) from the field and 4-of-19 (21 percent) from 3-point range.

"For us to be as good as we can be, we need to shoot the ball better," Thompson said. "Good teams shoot the ball well, and we haven't shot the ball well in three weeks, but I feel like that will come."

Tyrone Gibbs scored 16 points to lead three Cardinals in double figures. Bryan Trimble finished with 14 and Hezekiah Goodwin chipped in with 12 to lead Raytown South, which was 17-of-37 from the field (46 percent) and 6-of-16 (38 percent) from beyond the arc.

Despite leading for majority of the third and fourth quarters, Jefferson City was trying to play catchup for most of the first half.

Anunoby opened the game with an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Kamari Balton, but the Cardinals had a big response. Raytown South made its first fives shots, including three 3-pointers, to take an 11-2 lead in the first 2:03 of the game, prompting Thompson to call a timeout.

The Jays punched back with a 7-0 run shortly after and only trailed 16-12 at the end of the first following a buzzer-beating jumper by Anunoby.

"We basically just reminded them of our preparation," Thompson said. "Our defensive transition was our No. 1 priority, and we didn't do it to start the game. We just got refocused, and to our guys' credit we played hard and battled back and managed to survive that fast start by them."

Raytown South maintained at least a two-point lead in the second quarter, before a 3-pointer by Balton gave Jefferson City a 27-26 lead with 7:20 to play in the third. The Jays were 7-of-12 from the field in the period and outscored the Cardinals 20-16 to take a 44-42 lead into the fourth.

Rhylin Spence scored six of his nine points in the first four minutes of the final period for the Jays and Anunoby knocked down a 3 to give Jefferson City a 51-47 cushion with just under four minutes remaining, but the Jays didn't get another field goal until Spence converted on a putback to cut Jefferson City's deficit to one after a missed 3-pointer with .7 seconds left.

"I thought there were some moments where we got stagnant with our half-court motion," Thompson said. "I thought we kind of got to where we were standing and watching rather than moving without the ball.

"As the game tightened up, I think we tightened up a little bit and stopped moving as well as we had been. It was just a matter of staying with what we were doing when the situation presented itself."

Jefferson City will take on Western (Ky.) at 5:30 p.m. today in a loser's-bracket semifinal, while Raytown South will face Union (Okla.) at 8:30 p.m. today in a winner's-bracket semifinal.