The McKinley Red Dragons will look to defend their home court on Friday against the Howland Tigers at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully McKinley focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 15 on Tuesday.
McKinley struggled with assists on Tuesday (Newton Falls had 18 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. McKinley's tough 61-41 defeat to Newton Falls might stick with them for a while. McKinley has not had much luck with Newton Falls recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Despite the loss, McKinley got a solid performance out of Yaunsene Blackmon, who scored 19 points along with six rebounds and two steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Blackmon has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Anthony Budak, who scored five points along with five rebounds.
McKinley struggled to work together and finished the game with only four assists. That's the fewest assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Howland earned a 53-43 win over South Range on Friday.
Alex Henry continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 22 points along with seven assists and three blocks. Another player making a difference was Anthony Chieffo, who scored ten points along with five rebounds.
McKinley has been struggling recently as they've lost five of their last six matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-15 record this season. As for Howland, the victory got them back to even at 10-10.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: McKinley have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 24 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Howland struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27.6 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
McKinley suffered a grim 71-48 defeat to Howland in their previous meeting back in February of 2023. Thankfully for McKinley, Brandon Null (who almost dropped a double-double on 25 points and nine rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
