Basketball Recap: Southwest Takes Loss Despite Strong Performances from Deric Kelley and Houston Billeter

Southwest played a tough game on Tuesday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They came up short against the Dundy County-Stratton Tigers, falling 80-56. While losing is never fun, the Roughriders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 235th, while the Tigers are ranked 95th).

Southwest's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Houston Billeter, who went 8 of 16 on his way to 31 points along with five boards and three steals, and Deric Kelley, who went 7 for 11 en route to 16 points and eight rebounds. That was a full 55.4% of Southwest's points, marking the 14th time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Dundy County-Stratton to victory, but perhaps none more so than August Shaw, who went 8 for 16 en route to 20 points in addition to five assists and five boards. The dominant performance gave Shaw a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lane Bybee, who went 8 of 14 on his way to 17 points and seven rebounds.

Southwest's record now sits at 7-11. As for Dundy County-Stratton, they pushed their record up to 14-4 with the victory, which was their third straight at home.

When Southwest and Dundy County-Stratton next hit the court, they'll be up against teams who recently just can't seem to lose. Southwest will take on Perkins County and their three-game winning streak at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Meanwhile, Dundy County-Stratton will try to stop Cozad's eight-game winning streak when the meet at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.