Basketball Game Preview: Salina Central Mustangs vs. Arkansas City Bulldogs

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Previous Games

01/14/25 - Away	43-53 L
01/30/24 - Home	43-26 W
12/15/23 - Away	56-50 W
01/31/23 - Away	41-33 W
12/16/22 - Home	54-42 W
+ 4 more games

Salina Central is 8-1 against Arkansas City since December of 2020 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Friday. The Salina Central Mustangs will be playing in front of their home fans against the Arkansas City Bulldogs. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Salina Central has struggled recently with four defeats in a row, while Arkansas City will arrive with seven straight wins.

Salina Central fought the good fight in their overtime match against Andover Central on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell to the Jaguars 55-49. While the Mustangs didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Jaguars 14-3 in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Arkansas City beat Newton 46-40 on Tuesday. Given the Bulldogs' advantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 37th, while the Railroaders are ranked 281st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Arkansas City's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-1. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.0 points over those games. As for Salina Central, their loss dropped their record down to 6-9.

Salina Central came up short against Arkansas City in their previous matchup back in January, falling 53-43. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Arkansas City's Saliyah Henderson-Johnson, who went 5 for 8 to rack up 16 points along with six assists and six rebounds. Now that Salina Central knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.