JUNCTION CITY - Junction City knocked off Monticello 57-41 Saturday afternoon. It was the eighth consecutive victory for the Dragons, who improved to 13-6 on the season. Junction City's last loss was at Warren on Jan. 9.
"We started off the season slowly. We struggled a little bit," said Junction City coach Kendall Hutcheson. "We just said we were going to try to fix one thing every game. We had a 5-6 record at one time but we've gotten better. We've already avenged five of those six losses."
That was the case Saturday for the Dragons, who lost 73-46 to the Billies on Dec. 21.
Monticello led 18-9 after one quarter on Saturday. The Dragons rallied to take a 23-18 halftime lead, shutting out Monticello in the second quarter, and were up 34-30 going into the fourth quarter.
"We just tightened up on defense," said Hutcheson of the second quarter shutout. "We started getting better help, began forcing them to take jump shots and did a much better job rebounding."
Jerrodney Tubbs led the Dragons with 20 points. Terrell Gibson scored 16 and Jalen Davis added 10.
The Billies were led by Keshawn Pippen with 11.
Junction City is currently in second place in league play behind unbeaten Drew Central with a big week ahead. The Dragons are at Drew Central on Tuesday and go to McGehee on Thursday before hosting Lake Village on Friday.
"We're getting better play out of the people off the bench," said Hutcheson. "We're starting to understand how to do the little things right. But, right now, all we're trying to do is play ourbest basketball at the end of the year."
Monticello won the junior boys game 42-39.
Ryan Allen and Tanner Barnett each scored seven points for the Dragons. Jeremiah Williams and Tate Barnett added six points apiece while Zak Brown recorded five.