The St. Paul Wildcats were the 56-28 winner over the Sandy Creek Cougars when they last played one another back in January of 2023, but their luck changed this time around. St. Paul fell 50-37 to Sandy Creek on Friday. St. Paul just can't catch a break and has now endured three defeats in a row.
St. Paul lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Gracie Kelley, who scored 12 points along with six rebounds. Kelley scored a full 32.4% of St. Paul's points, the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Katlyn Oakley, who scored 12 points along with five rebounds and three steals.
Sandy Creek's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Ryleigh Skalka, who scored 16 points. Those 16 points set a new season-high mark for her. Ella Martin was another key contributor, scoring 15 points.
St. Paul's defeat was their third straight on the road, which bumped their record down to 3-9. As for Sandy Creek, their win ended a four-game drought at home and bumped them up to 2-9.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. St. Paul and Central City will face off at 6:00 p.m. on January 9th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Central City focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 23 on Friday. As for Sandy Creek, they will head out on the road to face off against Nebraska Christian on Thursday.
