Willard Tigers pick up two big wins, bettering COC record

The Willard High School boys basketball team racked up two more wins last week, while the Lady Tigers dropped games to Webb City and Carl Junction.
The Willard boys squad traveled to Carl Junction on Feb. 1 and came home with a 69-44 victory. Daniel Abreu and Maurice Grayer each had 24 points in the win and Riley Young added 11 points in the game.
“Carl Junction has one of the best players in the area in Trent Smith,” said head coach Jeremy Draessler. “He was very disruptive on the defensive end of the floor and very difficult to guard on the offensive end of the floor. It was a great battle between him and Abreu. Our role players continue to do a great job playing with confidence and Young had an outstanding game.”
The Tigers had to make
the trek west to Webb City on Jan. 29 and came home with a 76-45 win.
“I felt like it was a great win for our team,” said Draessler. “Really, any win in the COC (Central Ozarks Conference) is a good win. We were able to execute and really play very efficient of- fense. I felt like it was a close game, but we have really started to take a lot of pride on the defensive end of the floor and letting our offense take care of itself. Our role players are playing with a very high level of confidence which makes us that much closer to reaching our potential for the year.
Abreu led Willard with 30 points and Grayer chipped in 22 points in the win. Willard is now 13-7 on the season and is scheduled to host Carthage on Friday night.
Girls
The Lady Tigers traveled to Carl Junction on Feb. 1, and came home with a close
55-50 loss. No individual statistics were made available for this game at the time of this writing.
On Jan. 29, Willard traveled to Webb City, and after allowing 28 points in the fourth quarter to the Lady Cardinals, saw themselves fall by eight points, 74-66.
Willard and Webb City ended the first quarter tied at 14-14. The Lady Cardinals outscored Willard, 19-17 in the second quarter to take a 33-31 lead into halftime. Willard was able to take the lead in the third quarter, after outscoring Webb City, 17-13 to take a slight 48-46 advantage. The Lady Cardinals scored 28 points in the final quarter, while Willard only scored 18 points, to fall 74-66.
“We got off to a good start against the Lady Cardinals on Tuesday night,” said head coach JJ Adamson. “We had a great first few minutes of the game. Unfortunately, we
were not able to maintain the same levels of focus and execution for the remainder of the game. We hit a big three pointer to tie the game at 43 and it felt like we were ready to take control of the game, but our execution on both ends of the floor from there forward wasn’t as good as it needed to be. We are close to turning the corner and getting back to the style of play that makes us successful. These are good kids and they want to win.”
Meghan Mahan led Willard with a double-double, scoring 17 points and adding 10 rebounds; Kaitlyn Burson added 11 points and Hannah Bird and Lizzie Drennan both had 10 points in the loss.
Willard falls to 12-9 on the season and is scheduled to host Carthage tomorrow night.

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Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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