Hosting Cibecue last Tuesday, the Joseph City Wildcats turned a third quarter tie into a three-point win in their second to last regular season contest. The hometown Cats built a four-point lead after one, and lead 33-30 at the break. The visiting Wildcats wiped that lead away in the third, but saw Joseph City outscore them by three in the fourth to win the game 61-58.
Matt Fields had another stellar game with 20 points and nine rebounds. Latrelle Kinlicheenie added 17. Aaron Johnstun netted 14 and pulled down 18 boards. Seth Hutchens and Bryndon Buckley scored 3 each, while Troy Poudrier and Carlos Sanchez had 2 each.
The Wildcats made five three-point shots and went 12 for 19 at the free throw line.
Hosting a second straight Wildcat team on Friday in their regular season finale, Joseph City romped on Senior Night with a 74-26 win over Mayer. The Cats piled up 21 first period points, then outdid that mark in the second with another 25 to lead 46-17. Their defense held Mayer to just nine second half points in the big win.
Joseph City was dialed in from behind the arc, making nine three-point shots. Latrelle Kinlicheenie lead the way with five of those treys as his team high 15 points. Fields added 11; KJ Kinlicheenie, 10; Johnstun and Sanchez 9 each; Poudrier, 8; Buckley, 7; and Kaden Moss and Hutchens, 3 each.
Joseph City went 9 for 27 from three-point land and hit 7 of 11 free throws.
With the two wins the Wildcats finished the regular season at 19-8. They also claimed the regular season title in the 1A Central and will host Grand Canyon at 6 o’clock tonight in the regional tournament. With a win they would advance to the second round. They will be in the state tournament next week, but will have to await their final seeding, as some make-up games still remain in the 1A division.
