Basketball Preview: Willard Tigers vs. Webb City Cardinals
Willard has been on the road for four straight, but on Tuesday they'll finally head home. They will take on the Webb City Cardinals at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Willard has insisted on making their lastthree contests complete nail-biters, turning in a record of 2-1 during that stretch of close contests.
Even though Aurora scored an imposing 83 points last Tuesday, Willard still came out on top. Willard sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 85-83 victory over the Houn Dawgs. Given Willard's advantage in MaxPreps' Missouri basketball rankings (they are ranked 64th, while the Houn Dawgs are ranked 218th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, even though Branson scored an imposing 67 points on Wednesday, Webb City still came out on top. Webb City strolled past the Pirates with points to spare, taking the game 86-67. The win made it back-to-back wins for Webb City.
It was another big night for Barron Duda, who scored 21 points along with five rebounds and two steals. He is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last 17 games he's played. Holton Keith was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with five rebounds and four steals.
Willard's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 12-5. They've had to fight for that success though, as they only beat their opponents by an average of 2.67 points across that stretch. As for Webb City, they have been performing well recently as they've won ten of their last 13 games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season.
Willard was able to grind out a solid victory over the Cardinals when the teams last played back in February of 2023, winning 81-70. Will Willard repeat their success, or do the Cardinals have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
