The Perry boys basketball team will travel to Ames Thursday night for a 3A District Final with Gilbert.  Both teams are coming off of narrow victories on Monday.  Perry defeated Boone 54-52 while Gilbert held off Ballard 67-61.  The Bluejays will try to regain the third  quarter form that they showed Monday night.  Perry was able to open up an 18 point lead in the third quarter with solid execution on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.  However, Perry struggled in the fourth quarter with numerous turnovers that allowed Boone to have a chance to win the game late.

“I think it was a combination of factors,” added Head Coach Ned Menke.  “I think our guys tried to make too many plays and not stick to the game plan.  We were doing things that I’ve never seen us do in practice, like launching full court passes on reads that they thought they saw.  They just need to calm down in those situations and show some composure and trust the system we have in place.  I give a lot of credit to our guys for their execution in the third quarter which allowed us to open up such a large lead.  I think we will be more relaxed Thursday night and play our game.”

Perry will take on a Gilbert team that won the Heart of Iowa Conference.  The Tigers and Bluejays have not met this year.