Basketball Preview: Salisbury Elk Lick Elks vs. Turkeyfoot Valley Area Rams
Salisbury Elk Lick is on a three-game streak of home wins, while the Rams are on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Salisbury Elk Lick Elks will take on the Turkeyfoot Valley Area Rams at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Salisbury Elk Lick stacked an eighth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Thursday. They put the hurt on Ferndale with a sharp 46-23 win. The win was just what Salisbury Elk Lick needed coming off of a 57-37 defeat in their prior match.
Salisbury Elk Lick's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Lance Jones, who scored nine points along with five assists and five rebounds, and Drake Sellers, who dropped a double-double on ten points and 14 rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Kobe Broadwater, who scored three points along with five rebounds and four steals.
Meanwhile, even though Shanksville Stonycreek scored an imposing 57 points on Tuesday, Turkeyfoot Valley Area still came out on top. Turkeyfoot Valley Area strolled past the Vikings with points to spare, taking the game 73-57. Turkeyfoot Valley Area pushed the score to 58-34 by the end of the third, a deficit the Vikings cut but never quite recovered from.
It was another big night for Bryce Nicholson, who scored 38 points along with six rebounds and five steals. Nicholson is crushing the steal category: he's posted at least two every time he's taken the court this season. Zack Ryan was another key contributor, scoring nine points along with six assists and six rebounds.
Salisbury Elk Lick has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-6 record this season. As for Turkeyfoot Valley Area, their victory bumped their record up to 15-4.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Salisbury Elk Lick hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 55.6 points per game. However, it's not like Turkeyfoot Valley Area struggles in that department as they've been averaging 72.7 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Salisbury Elk Lick came out on top in a nail-biter against the Rams when the teams last played back in January, sneaking past 54-52. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Nicholson, who scored 26 points along with seven rebounds and four steals. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Salisbury Elk Lick still be able to contain Nicholson? There's only one way to find out.
