The Wildcats have compiled an impressive 5-1 regular season record as they head into their Christmas break. They nearly had a perfect mark, but a five-point home court loss to St. Johns on Thursday ended their unbeaten streak.
Prior to the St. Johns loss, Joseph City earned their 12th consecutive overall win at Basis School in Flagstaff on Tuesday night. Seth Hutchens has played great in the first half of the season and he kept that going in this contest draining 25 points to lead the team. Jay Edwards added 18 and Latrell Kinlicheenie netted 12. Those were the only players to score for Joseph City in the 55-38 win.
Hosting St. Johns two nights later the Wildcats struggled to score at all in the first eight minutes finishing the first quarter trailing 19-2 on the scoreboard. They fell further behind in the second and had to battle back from a 34-11 half time deficit.
To their credit they fought back outscoring the visitors 43-25 in the second half, but they came up five points short in the 59-54 home court loss.
Kinlicheenie had a big part of the comeback draining 29 points. Twenty-one of those points came from behind the arc where the senior guard made seven three-point goals. Hutchens added 15, Edwards 7, and Ricky Hulsey finished with 3 in the loss.
With the loss the Wildcats head to the break with an overall record of 12-2. They have logged both of their mid-season tournaments and will have nothing but regular season games left on the docket when they return from the break.
They will play at Mogollon on Jan. 7, then host Mayer on the 8th. On Jan. 11 they are slated to travel to Ash Fork.
