Basketball Game Preview: New Underwood Tigers vs. Harding County Ranchers

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Previous Games

01/27/24 - Away	10-59 L
12/29/22 - Home	32-26 W
01/29/22 - Away	34-20 W
01/30/21 - Home	49-39 W
02/01/20 - Away	54-31 W
+ 4 more games

New Underwood is 8-1 against Harding County since January of 2015 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Saturday. The New Underwood Tigers will be playing at home against the Harding County Ranchers at 3:00 p.m. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: New Underwood has struggled recently with five losses in a row, while Harding County will arrive with 12 straight victories.

It's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 50-16, which was the final score in New Underwood's tilt against Lyman on Thursday. While losing is never fun, the Tigers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' South Dakota basketball rankings (they are ranked 119th, while the Raiders are ranked 17th).

Meanwhile, Harding County didn't have too much trouble with Hill City on Friday as they won 54-39.

Harding County found their leader in sophomore Macey Wendt, who went 6 for 15 en route to 17 points along with five boards and four steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Wendt has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Brayden Padden, who posted ten points and three steals.

Harding County smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their offensive rebound total in three consecutive matchups.

Harding County's win was their 16th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 12-0. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 38.6 points. As for New Underwood, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-9.

New Underwood was dealt a bruising 59-10 loss at the hands of Harding County in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point New Underwood was down 34-4.