The Cheylin Cougars fought the good fight in their overtime match against the Southwest Roughriders on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell to the Roughriders 53-48. Cheylin's defeat signaled the end of their three-game winning streak.
Despite the defeat, Cheylin had strong showings from Pablo Bermudez, who scored 17 points along with seven steals, and Logan McCarty, who scored 15 points along with two steals. McCarty has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last seven times he's played. Another player making a difference was Victor Hernandez, who scored eight points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Southwest to victory, but perhaps none more so than Houston Billeter, who scored 22 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Nathan Rippe, who scored 11 points along with eight steals and five assists.
Cheylin's loss dropped their record down to 7-3. As for Southwest, their win ended a six-game drought at home and bumped them up to 5-10.
Cheylin will head out on the road to challenge Hi-Plains at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Hi-Plains focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 36 on Tuesday. As for Southwest, they will take on Cambridge at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Cambridge presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Southwest in Nebraska (Cambridge is ranked 98th, while Southwest is ranked 228th).
