Basketball Recap: Holmes Comes Up Short

Holmes was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their 13th straight defeat. They took a 76-64 hit to the loss column at the hands of the O'Connor Panthers. While losing is never fun, the Huskies can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 959th, while the Panthers are ranked 233rd).

When it comes to explaining why Holmes lost, don't look at Jaylen Conrad. Despite the final result, he went 7 of 9 from beyond the arc on his way to 30 points. The dominant performance gave Conrad a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Noah Smith, who went 5 for 11 on his way to 13 points.

Even though they lost, Holmes was working as a unit and finished the game with 16 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive contests.

It was another big night for Hagen Hurst, who dropped a double-double on 28 points and 16 boards for O'Connor. That makes it three consecutive games in which Hurst has scored at least a third of O'Connor's points. Evan Herrera was another key player, putting up 13 points along with five assists and four steals.

Holmes' loss dropped their record down to 4-21. As for O'Connor, the victory (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 11-10.

Holmes will venture away from home to square off against Marshall at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Marshall is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 57.2 points per game this season. As for O'Connor, they will welcome Stevens at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. O'Connor also hasn't been messing around on offense: they've averaged 53.9 points per game.