In games played on Monday of last week at Mountain Grove, the Houston Middle School boys basketball teams came away with a win and a loss.
The 8th-grade Tigers continued their strong season by beating the host Panthers 46-26.
Houston guard Karson Walker led all scorers in the contest with 22 points, while Caden Guerra had 8, Randall Dodd had 7, DJ Riley chipped in 4 and Riley Reed added 3.
The victory raised the squad’s season record to 6-1.
“This was another good win for our 8th grade,” said head coach Jake Brookshire. “Mountain Grove beat us last year by around 20 points, and the kids did a great job of flipping that score this year.
“They continue to win in different ways; usually we press and make the other team make mistakes, but Mountain Grove did a nice job against our press, making us get out of it.
The boys played good defense, rebounded and made some free throws for this win.”
Prior to the 8th-grade game, Houston’s 7th-grade team fell 53-8.
Hudson Volk scored 4 points for the Tigers, while
Kane Crawford and Dillon Shelton each had 2.
“Mountain Grove has a very impressive 7th-grade group,” Brookshire said, “and even though the score may not show it, I thought our kids did a good job competing and working to get better.”
The loss dropped the young Tigers to 0-5.
This week, the two teams play Tuesday at Ava and host Thayer on Thursday (Dec. 2). They’ll play their final home games of the season on Monday (Dec. 6) against St. James.