Wildcats suffer first conference loss

Licking fell behind early against Dixon Friday in a conference matchup on the road. The Bulldogs did not relinquish the lead and defeated the Wildcats 58-43.

Austin James led scoring with 15 points and 2 assists; Carter Sullins had 9 points; Roston Stockard connected for 6 points with 5 rebounds and 2 steals; Gaige Nicholson scored 5 points with 5 rebounds; Keyton Cook had 4 points with 8 rebounds and 3 assists; Kannon Buckner 4 points with 4 assists and 2 steals; Cole Wallace 5 rebounds and 2 steals; and Garrett Gorman 2 rebounds.

“No excuses, they played great and we didn’t play good at all. We didn’t shoot well early and that got us behind and made us feel like we had to dig out of a hole all night. We did a decent job on their best two players defensively, but we got killed on the boards when we made them force up a shot by someone else. We haven’t won a rebound battle in a while so we will be working on that all week and hope we can make that a priority the last few games of the season. I still think we can all get on the same page and start getting ready for districts. We should be a team that other schools don’t want to play.” ~ Coach Mike Phillips

Though Licking was not ranked in the top 10 in Class 3 High School Boys Basketball on February 1, they did receive votes in the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association’s ranking.