After a string of seven wins, the Norton Bluejays's good fortune finally ran out on Saturday. They fell just short of Phillipsburg by a score of 54-52. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest defeat Norton has suffered yet this season.
Norton's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Eli Jones, who scored 20 points along with six rebounds and five steals, and Rylen Murray who scored 20 points along with two steals. That was a full 38.5% of Norton's points, marking the fourth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Roman Hauser, who scored seven points along with six assists.
Rhett Shelton was his usual excellent self, scoring 23 points for Phillipsburg. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Shelton has scored all season. Rad Rodriguez was another key contributor, scoring 12 points along with two steals.
Norton's defeat ended a ten-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 9-2. As for Phillipsburg, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-4 record this season.
Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Norton will take on Ellis at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Ellis will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Kansas Rankings (they are ranked 279th, while Norton is ranked 73rd). As for Phillipsburg, Phillipsburg and Hoisington will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 23rd without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Hoisington focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 19 on Saturday.
