The Free State High girls basketball squad was outscored and outcoached by Junction City on Saturday.

“They’re a better-coached team than we are,” Firebirds coach Bryan Duncan said following a 58-46 loss at FSHS. “We obviously are poorly coached on offense, because we didn’t have any type of motion and didn’t have anything to go to in the halfcourt set. So, I guess we’ll say that’s my fault.”

The Firebirds shot 14-for-46, including 4-for-10 from three-point range. Jenna Brantley hit three of Free State’s three-pointers en route to a game-high 14 points, but she shot 1-for-8 from inside.

“Inside the three-point arc, none of our shots really fell,” Brantley said. “My layups weren’t falling, and Lauren (Kimball) was doing a really good job at penetrating … that’s how I was able to hit shots from the three.”

Though Junction City was 0-for-4 on threes, the Blue Jays recovered at the free-throw line, converting 24 of 33. FSHS was 14-for-26.

It also was a rough night for the Firebirds down low. Banaka Okwuone, their top threat under the basket, shot just 2-for-4.

“We need to swing the ball around a couple of times,” Okwuone said. “We’re so used to dribbling down and taking quick shots, but we’re not used to dribbling around (and) looking down low to see if it’s open or not. And then, if they get it down, we can kick it out for a shot.

“We really need to take our time. We have a lot of time down low, but we just seem to rush our shots and rush a lot of our offense and just panic. We just need to slow it down.”

Free State cut into the Blue Jays’ lead midway through the fourth quarter, but couldn’t rally, upsetting Duncan.

“Actually, I thought we did roll over tonight,” he said. “I thought our body language and our frustration level showed tonight, and that’s unacceptable for our basketball team. We were very disappointed in how we handled ourselves emotionally in the second half.”