Two dominant players in Jaren Frickey and Landon Simpson are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Ellis Railroaders will be home for the holidays to greet the Ellinwood Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Given that the pair suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this matchup.
On Tuesday, it was a hard-fought contest, but Ellis had to settle for a 50-47 loss against Phillipsburg. While losing is never fun, Ellis can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 234th, while Phillipsburg is ranked 99th).
Ellis' defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Frickey, who scored 21 points, and Aiden Aschenbrenner who scored 14 points. Frickey scored a full 44.7% of Ellis' points, the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Logan Russell, who scored six points.
Meanwhile, Ellinwood unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Tuesday. They suffered a rough 55-29 defeat at the hands of Ell-Saline. The result shouldn't come as a shock considering that's the fewest points Ellinwood has scored all season.
Ellis' loss dropped their record down to 1-4. As for Ellinwood, their defeat ended a 12-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 3-2.
Ellis was taken down by Ellinwood 65-7 in their previous matchup back in December of 2022. Thankfully for Ellis, Brit Dutton (who scored 24 points along with five assists and five steals) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
