Basketball Game Preview: Holdrege Dusters vs. Minden Whippets

Holdrege and Minden are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2017, but not for long. The Holdrege Dusters will take on the Minden Whippets in a tournament on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Holdrege has eight straight wins, Minden has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Last Friday, Holdrege was able to grind out a solid victory over Minden, taking the game 72-61. Given the Dusters' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 11th, while the Whippets are ranked 141st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Holdrege will need focus on slowing down Luke Grollmes, one of several Minden players who made an impact when they last played. He went 9 of 21 on his way to 23 points and six rebounds. Those 23 points gave Grollmes a new career-high. Brett Eckhardt was another key player, dropping a double-double on 13 points and ten boards.

Even though they lost, Minden smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in seven consecutive matchups.

Holdrege is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 games, which provided a nice bump to their 14-2 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 79.7 points per game. As for Minden, they now have a losing record at 7-8.