Recap: Mercer Cardinals vs. Grundy County/Newtown-Harris Panthers
It was a good run, but the Mercer Cardinals unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Thursday. They lost to Grundy County/Newtown-Harris on the road by a decisive 66-50 margin. Mercer has struggled against Grundy County/Newtown-Harris recently, as their contest on Thursday was their fourth consecutive lost matchup.
Grundy County/Newtown-Harris was led to victory by Corbin Axtell and Zack Cross. Axtell dropped a double-double on 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Cross shot 4-for-5 from beyond the arc and dropped a double-double on 24 points and 14 rebounds. Axtell has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last 11 times he's played. Another player making a difference was Hunter Miller, who scored nine points along with three steals.
Mercer's defeat dropped their record down to 7-6. As for Grundy County/Newtown-Harris, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-3 record this season.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Mercer on the road again on Tuesday and play against Winston at 7:30 p.m. on January 30th. Winston is on a four-game streak of home wins, Mercer a three-game streak of away wins -- so someone will have to leave a streak behind on the court. As for Grundy County/Newtown-Harris, they will head out on the road to take on Meadville at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. Meadville will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Missouri Rankings (they are ranked 409th, while Grundy County/Newtown-Harris is ranked 148th).
