It was always going to be an emotional night.

Senior night always is.

After racking up a 33-6 record the last two years and with a league championship on the line, Tuesday night was going to be emotional from the outset for the Manhattan High boys basketball team and its seniors.

But once the game — a matchup with archrival Junction City — began, the early, narrow deficit the Indians faced on the scoreboard threatened to send MHS home with emotions it would rather not experience.

However, it didn’t last: Manhattan clinched a share of the Centennial League title with a 58-46 win over the Blue Jays, its second-straight league title and 12th straight win over Junction City.

The title comes a year after the team seized its first-ever league crown, and the Indians were grateful for the accolade. Ecstatic, even.

“It was a huge game. Senior night; Junction City; to get a share of league,” senior Gabe Awbrey, who finished the night with 18 points, said. “It was awesome. It was a great game to be a part of.”

And while the contest may not serve as Manhattan’s final home game of the season — it is likely to host sub-state — the aura of the night as a whole was a peculiar one, Awbrey said.

“It’s weird with it being the last regular-season game,” he said. “I was like, ‘well, not many more of these coming.’ But I’m going to make the most of it as long as I possibly can.”

Head coach Benji George, who has overseen now 34 wins in his time at Manhattan High, said he was proud, to say the least, of the group of seniors.

“There’s no possible way that I could overstate what this group is done,” he said. “They have been phenomenal to coach. They’ve achieved things that have never been done in program history. They’re great teammates; they’re great kids. They represent our community as well as I could have ever hoped for.”

But the pre-game routines, the final regular-season ones for the Indians’ seven seniors, came to an end when senior Christian Carmichael’s name echoed over the loudspeakers. The nostalgia of the night, while perhaps not completely over, was put on pause.

Junction City wasted no time halting the Indians’ usual quick start to the first frame. Settling into a zone, the Blue Jays took a 10-10 tie into the second frame, when they began to assert dominance underneath. Forward Xavier Cason posted a quick four points, and a triple from Nick Arneson put his team up four, at 17-13.

But Manhattan regained the lead with a 5-0 spurt, and after a jumper from Cason to end the frame, the Indians found themselves trailing at intermission for the first time all season.

“We shot the ball as poorly as we’ve probably shot it all year long [in the first half],” George said. “We had to have a delicate balance between attacking their zone and still taking outside shots.”

The Indians found it in the third quarter.

They opened the stanza on a 9-3 run, and whatever frustration Manhattan faced in the first half quickly vanished. Awbrey canned two triples in the frame, and threes from seniors Zach Francis and Robbie Ostermann lifted the Indians to a 36-28 lead.

Senior Grant Munsen ended the third with a layup for a 38-29 lead, and said the reversal of fortunes found its roots in a rather simple aspect: making shots.

“We definitely got some shots to fall,” Munsen said. “We were kind of off in the first half…. Knocked down some shots; got some better looks.”

Once Manhattan stretched its lead to double digits in the fourth period, it receded to single digits just once. From there, the contest came down to free throws, and the Indians knocked down each of their 13 attempts.

The Indians maintain their pedestal atop the Centennial League and its sub-state standings with the win, but before the playoffs can begin, they have one last regular season test: a road contest against Seaman, who has not lost at home this season.

With a win, Manhattan bypass any chances of sharing the league would clinch the Centennial League title outright

With that in mind, George awaits a narrow tilt.

“[I’m expecting] an absolute dogfight,” he said. “We talked about how tough we were going to have to be tonight; we’re going to have to be even tougher Friday night.

“We’re going to be walking into a hornet’s nest.”