The Pender Pendragons will look to defend their home court on Friday against the Sandy Creek Cougars at 6:00 p.m. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Pender sitting on four straight victories and Sandy Creek on three.
Pender put the finishing touches on their 20th blowout victory of the season on Thursday. They blew past Bancroft-Rosalie, posting a 51-19 victory at home. Given Pender's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 15th, while Bancroft-Rosalie is ranked 96th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Pender found their leader in underclassman Madalyn Dolliver, who scored 18 points along with six rebounds and two steals. Dolliver has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last four times she's played. Hadley Walsh was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Sandy Creek had just enough and edged Red Cloud out 29-27 on Thursday.
Sandy Creek can attribute much of their success to Paige Biltoft, who scored seven points along with two blocks, and Emma Fisher, who scored 11 points along with three steals. It was the first time this season that Biltoft posted two or more blocks.
Pender's victory bumped their record up to 24-1. As for Sandy Creek, their win bumped their record up to 9-17.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's game: Pender have been dynamite from deep this season, having drained 47% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Sandy Creek, though, as they've only made 29.7% of their threes this season. Given Pender's sizable advantage in that area, Sandy Creek will need to find a way to close that gap. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
