Preview: Wray Eagles vs. Chase County Longhorns
The Wray Eagles and the Chase County Longhorns will face off at 4:00 p.m. on December 15th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Given that both teams suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this match.
Wray pushed their score all the way to 58 on Saturday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They lost to Colby on the road by a decisive 75-58 margin. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Wray in their matchups with Colby: they've now lost four in a row.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Adonay Gonzalez, who scored seven points along with seven steals. Gonzalez set a new season high mark in steals with seven. The team also got some help courtesy of AB Ruiz, who scored 12 points along with seven rebounds.
Meanwhile, things could have been worse for Chase County, but they could have been a whole lot better as they took a 66-47 loss to Ogallala on Saturday. While losing is never fun, Chase County can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 140th, while Ogallala is ranked ninth).
Chase County's loss came about despite a quality game from Jensen Olsen, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds. The match was Olsen's fourth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Tristan Jablonski, who scored seven points along with five rebounds.
Chase County struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only two offensive rebounds. That's the fewest offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Wray has fallen quite a ways from their 21-6 record last season and are now at 1-3. As for Chase County, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 1-3.
Wray took their win against Chase County when the teams last played back in December of 2022 by a conclusive 64-40. The rematch might be a little tougher for Wray since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
