ORWELL — After being delayed one day due to inclement weather, the Jackson-Milton Blue Jays and Grand Valley Mustangs began their 2020-21 boys basketball seasons Wednesday night in Orwell.

A tight contest saw the Mustangs edge out the Blue Jays by a final of 46-44.

“It was a pretty good effort all around,” Grand Valley coach Justin Turk said. “Anytime you can get a win, you’ll take it. It wasn’t pretty. We made a lot of mistakes. The rebounding effort by Hagan (Hejduk) and Derek (Jackson) was just outstanding.”

Jackson-Milton senior A.J. Bouch (team-high 12 points) laid it up and in to give the Blue Jays a 13-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. Senior Gavin Sahli drilled one from downtown to extend the Blue Jay advantage. Hejduk nailed a pair of free-throws to cut the Jackson-Milton lead to 20-15 with 3 minutes left until halftime.

Blue Jay senior Cole Grope took the ball the length of the court and finished at the hoop for the score. Bouch ended the first half with a finger-roll, and Jackson-Milton led, 25-20, at the break.

Grand Valley junior Ashton Zupancic hit one from behind the arc to begin the third quarter. He followed with a lay-up, giving the Mustangs their first lead since the first quarter. Blue Jay sophomore Aaren Romigh had a nice feed down low to Bouch for the assist. Jackson banked the ball off the backboard to score for Grand Valley.

Senior Nicholas McGinnis Jr. swished a 3-pointer for Jackson-Milton. He is one of 11 seniors on the roster for the Blue Jays.

“They’re a good group of kids,” Jackson-Milton coach Steve Procopio said. “They’ve stuck together. Some guys play more than others, but they are good teammates. We didn’t play our game tonight. We didn’t execute. When you don’t go out and execute, that’s the results you get.”

Zupancic’s half-court shot went sailing over the backboard and the Blue Jays were clinging to a 34-33 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

Grand Valley built a 38-34 advantage before the Blue Jays finally got on the board with 4 minutes left in the fourth. Nathan Boiarski made a clutch 3-point shot for the Mustangs, and Grand Valley went ahead, 41-36.

However, the Blue Jays weren’t finished. Senior Mason Robison (10 points) cut through the lane and scored to pull Jackson-Milton within 43-42 with 40 seconds left in regulation.

“We wanted to make sure we were pressuring Robison,” Turk said. “He missed a lot of the game due to foul trouble. That was pretty good execution on our part. We were a little too passive in the end. Thankfully, we were able to stop them.”

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The Mustangs did just that when Boiarski (13 points) had a huge blocked shot in the closing seconds. Ethan Spencer’s outlet to Zupancic (13 points) all but sealed it with 7 seconds left to play.

Each team went to the line as the final seconds.

Grope missed his final attempt on purpose, and Bouch tried tipping theball toward the basket as time expired.