There's no place like home for the Shakamak Lakers, who bounced back after a tough loss on the road last Thursday. They took down Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine 46-28 on Thursday. Given Shakamak's advantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 171st in Indiana, while the are ranked 591st in Illinois), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Elayni Stone was her usual excellent self, scoring 11 points along with seven rebounds and seven steals. She continues to roll, besting her previous point total in each of the last three games she's played. Aubree Langford was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with five rebounds.
Several Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Genna Kidwell, who scored ten points along with five rebounds and two steals. That was a full 35.7% of Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Maggie Bailey, who scored eight points.
Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine struggled to work together and finished the game with only four assists. They were crushed by their opponents in that department as Shakamak racked up 13 assists.
Shakamak's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 16-6. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 51.0 points per game. As for Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 7-18.
Shakamak will take on the Lions at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Lighthouse Christian Academy has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games. As for Oblong/Hutsonville/Palestine, they will head out on the road to challenge the Indians at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Hopefully Lawrenceville focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 14 on Thursday.
