There's no place like home for the Sandy Creek Cougars, who bounced back after a tough loss on the road last Tuesday. Everything went their way against Superior on Thursday as Sandy Creek made off with a 65-41 win. Given Sandy Creek's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 54th, while Superior is ranked 256th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Ethan Shaw continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 6 for 9 from beyond the arc en route to 22 points and 5 assists. That makes it three consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of Sandy Creek's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Oliver Oglesby, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and ten rebounds.
Superior's loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Colten Butler, who scored 16 points along with four steals. That was a full 39% of Superior's points, marking the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Jaren Gilbert was another key contributor, scoring 12 points.
Sandy Creek is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 16-5 record this season. As for Superior, they are on a 15-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 1-19.
Sandy Creek won't have much time to rest: their next match is against Milford at 7:45 p.m. on February 9th. Hopefully Sandy Creek focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 12 on Thursday. As for Superior, they and Lawrence-Nelson will face off on February 9th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Superior focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up ten on Thursday.
