After flying high against the Cassville Wildcats on Tuesday, the Mountain Grove Panthers came back down to earth. Mountain Grove was dealt a 63-30 loss at the hands of Sparta on Thursday. Mountain Grove lost against Sparta in their previous head to head back in December of 2022, too, but the margin this time around was much wider than the 64-60 score last time.
Jacob Lafferty was on fire for Sparta: he dropped a double-double on 25 points and 16 rebounds. That makes it two consecutive games in which Lafferty has scored at least 25% of Sparta's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Walker Loveland, who scored 11 points along with 5 assists and 4 steals.
Mountain Grove's defeat dropped their record down to 1-1. As for Sparta, the win makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 2-0.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Mountain Grove will challenge Hartville at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Sparta's road trip will continue as they head out to face Strafford.
