The Willard Tigers suffered their closest loss yet this season on Friday. They fell just short of Washburn Rural by a score of 60-57. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Washburn Rural found their leader in underclassman John Hoytal, who scored 15 points along with five assists and five rebounds. That's the first time this season that Hoytal scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaden Ballard, who scored 13 points along with four steals.
This is the second loss in a row for Willard and nudges their season record down to 10-5. As for Washburn Rural, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 3-7 record this season.
Willard and Joplin will face off on January 20th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Joplin is coming into the contest on a six-game losing streak. Washburn Rural won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against West at 2:30 p.m. on January 20th. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Kansas (West is ranked 128th, while Washburn Rural is ranked 131st).
