After losing to the Macksville Mustangs the last time they met, the Larned Indians decided to demonstrate that turnabout is fair play. Larned managed a 47-42 win over Macksville on Tuesday. The victory was all the more spectacular given Larned's disadvantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 267th, while Macksville is ranked 83rd).
Despite the loss, Macksville still got an impressive performance from Diego Esparza, who scored 21 points along with eight rebounds and three steals. That was a full 50% of Macksville's points, marking the fourth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Orion Guevara was another key contributor, scoring eight points.
Larned's victory ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 2-6-1. As for Macksville, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-3.
Larned will face off against Nickerson at 8:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Nickerson focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 16 on Tuesday. Macksville will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Central Plains at 8:00 p.m. on Friday.
