Louisburg boys fall to De Soto in road contest

Louisburg senior Jayce Geiman tries to dribble through a pair of De Soto defenders Tuesday at De Soto High School. The Wildcats fell to De Soto 57-40, which snapped a two-game winning streak.

DE SOTO – The first time the Louisburg boys basketball team squared off with De Soto, everything went its way in a 16-point victory at home.

The exact opposite happened Tuesday.

Louisburg traveled to De Soto for the return game and left with a 57-40 loss after winning its last two games at the buzzer. The Wildcats struggled to get much offense going from the start, and on the other end, had a hard time containing De Soto’s Noah Watson.

Watson scored a game-high 25 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as he accounted for nearly half of his team’s points.

De Soto opened the contest on a 11-4 run and led 17-8 at the end of the first quarter. Louisburg’s deficit increased to 13 points halftime and the Wildcats (8-11) weren’t able to get the De Soto lead under 10 the rest of the way.

Senior Grant Harding led Louisburg in scoring with 13 points and fellow senior T.J. Dover finished with eight points.

Louisburg will try to end its regular season on a positive note as the Wildcats will host rival Paola on Friday for senior night. Tipoff is set for approximately 7:30 p.m.

Senior night ceremonies will be held in-between the varsity girls and boys contest.

LOU               8             10           12           10 – 40

DES                17           14           12           14 – 57

LOUISBURG (8-11): Grant Harding 13, T.J. Dover 8, Dalton Ribordy 6, Jayce Geiman 4, Jake Hill 4, Desmond Doles 3, Sam Guetterman 2. Totals: 18-45 4-12 40. 3-point field goals: none