The basketball teams took on the Raytown Blue Jays in the Court warming games Friday night. Both teams lost hard-fought battles, girls 41-31 and boys 52-48. The girls were down by 13, but came back to make it 17-14 at the half. In the second half, they struggled with turnovers.

“We didn’t really make the adjustments we needed to in the second half. Our shots just weren’t falling and they were playing really good defense,” sophomore Destiny Ojigoh said.

The girls begin district play on Tuesday, facing conference opponent North Kansas City.

“We have things we need to work on, but we’re ready to work hard these next few days to play on Tuesday and hopefully advance to the championship game,” junior Brooklyn Barnett said.

Both boys teams struggled with turnovers in the first half of their game. Junior Michael Wansing picked it up in the third quarter, and the Eagles started scoring. At the start of the fourth quarter, the Eagles were down 41-47. After more offense from both teams, senior Cale Hanson hit both of his free throws to make it 48-49 Raytown. The boys continued to fight, but Raytown pulled ahead in the end.

“We played hard against a really good team and fell short. We know there are things we need to improve on but the effort was there. We will bring that same effort into practice this week in preparation for districts and we will be ready to play,” Wansing said.