Preview: Malcolm Clippers vs. Beatrice Orangemen
The Malcolm Clippers will be home for the holidays to greet the Beatrice Orangemen at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Malcolm focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 on Tuesday.
Malcolm unfortunately witnessed the end of their four-game winning streak. They fell to Northwest 58-54. Malcolm found out winning isn't easy when you don't work as a unit and rack up seven fewer assists than your opponent.
Despite the loss, Malcolm saw an underclassman step up: Halle Dolliver dropped a double-double on 35 points and 14 rebounds. Dolliver scored a full 64.8% of Malcolm's points, the fifth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Abby Zegar, who scored six points along with eight rebounds.
Beatrice has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three contests by 24 points or more this season. They were the clear victor by a 63-39 margin over Aurora. Given Beatrice's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 17th, while Aurora is ranked 179th), the result on Saturday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Malcolm's loss ended a nine-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 4-1. As for Beatrice, they pushed their record up to 4-0 with that victory, which was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season.
Malcolm didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Beatrice in their previous meeting back in January, but they still walked away with a 42-37 victory. Does Malcolm have another victory up their sleeve, or will Beatrice turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
