The Emporia Spartans will head out on the road to face off against the Paola Panthers at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Last Friday, things could have been worse for Emporia, but they could have been a whole lot better as they took a 56-41 loss to Junction City. While losing is never fun, Emporia can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 76th, while Junction City is ranked 12th).
Despite the loss, Emporia got a solid performance out of River Peters, who scored 21 points along with five rebounds and two steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Nolan Jacob, who scored six points.
Meanwhile, sadly, Paola is still looking for their first win of the season after 19 contests. The contest between them and Louisburg wasn't particularly close, with Paola falling 46-29. Paola has not had much luck with Louisburg recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
This is the second loss in a row for Emporia and nudges their season record down to 11-7. As for Paola, they dropped their record down to 0-19 with that defeat, which was their tenth straight at home.
Everything came up roses for Emporia against Paola when the teams last played back in January of 2023 as the team secured a 58-28 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Emporia since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
