Basketball Game Preview: Gordon-Rushville Mustangs vs. Morrill Lions

The Gordon-Rushville Mustangs will be taking part in a tournament against the Morrill Lions at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.

Gordon-Rushville is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They managed a 66-62 victory over Leyton on Saturday.

Daniel Martins was nothing short of spectacular: he dropped a double-double on 25 points and 11 rebounds. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in points. Maddox Leeper was another key player, putting up ten points and eight boards.

Gordon-Rushville was working as a unit and finished the game with 19 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, Morrill made easy work of Sioux County on Saturday and carried off a 58-33 win. The Lions have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won seven matches by 22 points or more this season.

Gordon-Rushville better keep an eye on Ashwin Pittman. He was instrumental in Morrill's win, almost dropping a double-double on 21 points and nine assists. That makes it five consecutive games in which Pittman has scored at least a third of Morrill's points. Another player making a difference was Osiris Saucedo, who posted eight points.

Morrill has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.7 points per game. As for Gordon-Rushville, their victory ended a seven-game drought on the road and puts them at 5-12.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Gordon-Rushville has been crashing the rebounds this season, having averaged 26.6 boards per game. However, it's not like Morrill struggles in that department as they've been averaging 28.4 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.

Gordon-Rushville suffered a grim 57-35 defeat to Morrill when the teams last played on Friday. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Gordon-Rushville was down 32-9.