The Lady Wildcats entered the 1A state bracket as the No. 2 overall seed and through the first two rounds they have played like it. Joseph City opened the tournament on Tuesday night with an impressive 54-24 win over No. 15 Duncan. The Cats jumped out to a 26-0 first-period lead and never looked back in the big win.
Amber Neil led the team in scoring with 10 points. Kate Edwards, Brenlee Hutchens and April Neil each scored 8, Kadence Armstrong and Gabby Jesmer both had 6, Abigayle Smith helped with 4, and Adilene Claw had 2, as did McKenzie Jesmer.
Round two was a home-court match-up with rival Mogollon who came in as the No. 10 overall seed. As they had done in their four previous meetings this year, Joseph City prevailed winning this time 50-41. The game was knotted at 12-12 after the first and Joseph City found themselves trailing by four at the half. They made up that difference in the third and then held the Mustangs to just nine fourth-quarter points to secure the win.
April Neil had a big night scoring 22 points. Jesmer added 10; Edwards, 6; Smith, 6; Armstrong, 4; and Amber Neil helped with 2.
With the win, Joseph City now heads to Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott on Friday where they will meet up with No. 3 St. David in the 1A semi-final game. The winner will advance to the 1A title game to be played at 4 p.m. on Saturday. Top-seeded Rock Point and No. 4 Fort Thomas square off in the other semi-final game.
