Basketball Recap: Shamrock Comes Up Short

After flying high against Lefors last Tuesday, Shamrock came back down to earth. The Shamrock Irish were dealt an 84-47 defeat at the hands of the McLean Tigers on Tuesday. Sadly, that's the third time they've come up short against the Irish this season, as they also lost their prior matchup 75-59 back in December of 2024.

Several Irish players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Rhpy Owens, who went 8 of 13 on his way to 17 points and six boards. The dominant performance gave Owens a new career-high in points. Kyle Ishee was another key player, putting up six points and seven rebounds.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead McLean to victory, but perhaps none more so than Collin Alston, who went 10 for 22 en route to 21 points in addition to seven boards and three steals. The game was Alston's ninth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Jayvon Salazar, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Shamrock has been struggling recently as they've lost ten of their last 13 matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-14 record this season. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 51.6 points per game. As for McLean, the victory was the seventh in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 17-5.

Coincidentally, Shamrock and McLean will both be playing Hedley the next time they take the court. Shamrock will host Hedley at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, while McLean will head out to face them at 7:30 p.m. on January 28th.