Basketball Recap: Southwestern Takes Loss Despite Strong Efforts from Harlee Hill and Baleigh Mcafee

If Southwestern was riding high fresh off their 50-25 takedown of Salem last Tuesday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. The Southwestern Rebels lost to the South Ripley Raiders at home by a 52-36 margin on Thursday. The Rebels were given a dose of their own medicine in this game as the Raiders apparently hadn't forgotten their defeat the last time these teams played back in January of 2024.

Baleigh McAfee and Harlee Hill certainly did their best on Thursday to avoid the loss. McAfee went 5 of 11 en route to 17 points and eight boards, while Hill went 5 for 10 on her way to 11 points in addition to six rebounds and four blocks. The dominant performance gave McAfee a new career-high in points.

Even though they lost, Southwestern smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 19 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 13 offensive rebounds in six consecutive contests.

Southwestern's loss dropped their record down to 13-7. As for South Ripley, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a massive bump to their 12-9 record this season.

Southwestern has already played their next game, a 63-54 victory against Rising Sun on the 25th. South Ripley has also already played their next contest (against Jac-Cen-Del), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.