The Wildcats limped home to Joseph City through the final stages of the regular season, losing their final five games, including three played last week.
A cold shooting night left them on the wrong side of a 64-49 final score against Mogollon on Tuesday night in Heber. The Cats shot just 29 percent from the field and missed 17 free throws, but still played hard in the eyes of their coach.
“I must give it to the boys. In spite of all the missed shots they worked their tails off and cut the lead to under 10 with a few minutes left in the game, but in the end the misses ended up doing us in,” said Coach Eric Miller.
Zachary Miller led the team with 17 points, five rebounds and three steals. Daniel Bushman added 10 with 12 boards and four steals. Wyatt Bain netted 10 points. Josh Parra grabbed eight rebounds and had two steals.
Joseph City 8 15 7 19 49
Mogollon 11 16 15 22 64
On Friday night the Cats were back on the road visiting St. Michael. Playing in that venue is tough for most everyone who ventures in there and Joseph City was blown out, losing the game 69-32.
“They hit nearly all of their shots and we turned the ball over way too many times,” noted Coach Miller.
Bushman led with 8 points, six rebounds and nine steals. Jacob Fields added 7 points. Dallin Baldwin netted 6 and pulled in nine rebounds. Jaden Parra helped with two steals.
Joseph City 8 7 11 6 32
St. Michael 22 18 15 14 69
Playing at home on Senior Night on Saturday, Joseph City again came up short, losing to Rock Point 59-54.
After struggling with a slow start that put them behind by double digits in the first half, the Cats came out strong in the second, cutting the lead to just three with 20 seconds left in the game, but couldn’t complete the comeback.
“This was Senior Night and our seniors, Brannick Carlisle, Zachary Miller, Justin Parisot, Josh Parra, and managers Tim Montoya and Kaylee Pugh, have all done a great job for this team this year. The boys came out with some fire in the second half, but we weren’t quite able to pull it off,” concluded the coach.
Miller finished his home career with a big night, scoring 28 points with seven steals. Bushman added 10. Josh Parra grabbed eight boards and had three steals. Carlisle finished with 6 points and Wyatt Johnson helped with four steals.
The Wildcats finished the regular season ranked fourth in the Western Division of the 1A North Region. They will play El Capitan High School at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 4, at Sinagua High School in Flagstaff in the first round of the North Regional Tournament.
Joseph City finished the regular season with an overall mark of 8-19.
