Basketball Game Preview: Holdrege Dusters vs. Phillipsburg Panthers

The Holdrege Dusters will head out on the road to face off against the Phillipsburg Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Last Friday, Holdrege rang in the new year with a 49-37 win over Lexington. Given the Dusters' advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 81st, while the Minutemen are ranked 200th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Phillipsburg had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 32 points) and they went ahead and made it four back in December of 2024. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat the Cardinals 69-28. While the Panthers didn't have the best season last year (they finished 9-12), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.

Phillipsburg's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 5-1. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 24.3 points per game. As for Holdrege, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season.