Nucla is 1-9 against Dove Creek since December of 2022 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Saturday. The Nucla Mustangs just played last yesterday, but they'll still welcome the Dove Creek Bulldogs at 1:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Dove Creek will be up against a hot Nucla team: the squad just extended their winning streak to four. Nucla breezed by Telluride to the tune of 52-12 on Friday. 52 seems to be a good number for the Mustangs as the team scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.
Nucla can attribute much of their success to Kendra McCluer, who posted 15 points along with seven boards and five steals. Another player making a difference was Darcy Bray, who earned four points in addition to ten rebounds and three steals.
Nucla smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in 32 consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Dove Creek on Tuesday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Ouray out of the water with a 50-8 final score. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 26-4.
Dove Creek's win came from a few key players Nucla will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Taylor Hampton, who scored 18 points along with six boards and three steals. Taylor Barry was another key player, putting up ten points in addition to eight steals and five rebounds.
Dove Creek is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 12-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 26.6 points over those games. As for Nucla, they pushed their record up to 14-3 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Nucla has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 34.5 boards per game. However, it's not like Dove Creek struggles in that department as they've been averaging 32.4 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Nucla was able to grind out a solid win over Dove Creek in their previous matchup last Tuesday, winning 39-31. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Dove Creek's Ralynn Hickman, who almost dropped a triple-double on 20 points, 12 boards, and nine steals. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Nucla still be able to contain Hickman? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
