OAKLAND, Calif. St. Joseph Notre Dame JV scored the first eight points and never trailed on Tuesday, beating the Head-Royce boys junior varsity 54-43. The Jayhawks fell to 6-3. The visitors won the rebounding battle 46-26, and Head-Royce made only 15 of 58 shots from the field.
St. Joseph Notre Dame JV opened with three straight baskets and a second-chance basket for an 8-0 lead. Adagio Williams put Head-Royce on the board with a 3-pointer off a Jackson Benson assist. The visitors answered with a 7-0 run and led 15-3. Head-Royce stayed within reach with baskets from John Wheeler and Benson, then a 3-pointer by Kian Patel off a Wheeler assist that made it 17-10.
St. Joseph Notre Dame JV pushed the lead to 24-10 before the Jayhawks strung together seven straight points. Wheeler scored, Owen Sunwoo added a basket and a free throw, and Clayton Sonne finished a feed from Jayan Shah to cut the deficit to 24-17. The visitors scored the next six points, but Head-Royce kept answering. A Benson 3-pointer, a Makaio Popp basket and another Benson basket made it 37-26, and free throws from Sunwoo and Williams brought the Jayhawks within 39-29.
The deciding stretch came next. St. Joseph Notre Dame JV scored eight straight points to go up 47-29, and three straight free throws later made it 50-31, a 19-point lead that was the game's biggest margin. Head-Royce did not quit. Trailing 52-34, the Jayhawks scored nine straight points on a Shah basket, a Williams free throw, four consecutive Wheeler free throws and a Williams basket off a turnover, which cut the lead to 52-43. St. Joseph Notre Dame JV scored the game's final basket.
Wheeler led Head-Royce with 12 points and 10 rebounds, seven of them on the offensive glass. He made all four of his free throws and added three assists and four steals. Benson, a junior guard, gave the Jayhawks a lift off the bench with seven points, three steals and two assists, and Williams also scored seven points, going 1 for 1 from 3-point range. Sunwoo added five points off the bench, and Popp scored five with two steals.
Head-Royce's defense kept the game from getting away earlier. The Jayhawks forced 26 turnovers and recorded 16 steals, but they turned those chances into only six points. On offense, Head-Royce shot 25.9 percent from the field and made 3 of 25 attempts from 3-point range. St. Joseph Notre Dame JV shot 36.8 percent and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, which led to 10 second-chance points. Head-Royce had two second-chance points. The Jayhawks' bench outscored nobody on the stat sheet but still produced 14 points, and Head-Royce made 10 of 14 free throws.
The loss ended a stretch in which Head-Royce had won six of its first eight games. The Jayhawks are now 6-3.