The McCool Junction Mustangs and the Cross County Cougars will face off at 6:30 p.m. on January 26th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
McCool Junction waltzed into their game on Tuesday with two straight wins but they left with three. They blew past Dorchester 51-31. Given McCool Junction's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 49th, while Dorchester is ranked 134th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for McKenna Yates, who scored 19 points along with six rebounds and five steals. She is on a roll when it comes to points, as she's now scored 15 or more in the last nine games she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Natalie Clark, who scored nine points along with three steals.
Meanwhile, Cross County had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 32.3 points), and they went ahead and made it five on Tuesday. They really took it to High Plains for the full four quarters, racking up a 58-17 victory on the road. With Cross County ahead 32-7 at the half, the contest was all but over already.
McCool Junction is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 11-3 record this season. As for Cross County, their win bumped their record up to 16-1.
McCool Junction came up short against Cross County in their previous matchup back in November of 2023, falling 57-47. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cross County's Shyanne Anderson, who scored 16 points along with two steals. Now that McCool Junction knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
