Sports

February 19, 1982

The St. John’ s/Tipton Blujays stepped into the semifinal game against the Northern Valley Huskies as the visiting team Thursday night but were listed as the visiting team due to the Huskies having the top seed in the tournament. With an 18-2 record the Huskies enter the game as the #3 ranked team in 1A Division II. The Huskies led by as much as 18 in the third quarter but allowed the Blujays to get them in serious foul trouble the whole game which kept St. John’ s/Tipton in the game. With less than two minutes remaining the Jays cut the lead to 1 point which was as close as they would get. Northern Valley pulled off the victory as they defeated St. John’ s/Tipton 60-57 for the substate finals advancement.

The St. John’ s/Tipton Lady Jays team traveled to Barton College on Thursday to take on the #1 ranked Central Plains in the first round of the 2022 1A Division II state basketball tournament. The Blujays were sporting a 17-6 record entering the game compared to a near perfect 23-1 from Central Plains. The game started out fairly evenly matched between the two teams, with the Blujays only trailing at halftime by 10 points. The Oilers were able to take over the game in the third quarter and run away with it in the fourth quarter. The Lady Jays were unable to maintain the intensity over four quarters as the Oilers won the game 58-28 and advance in the state semifinals.