The Garden County Eagles lost against the Morrill Lions back in December of 2022, and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. Garden County fell to Morrill 40-35. While losing is never fun, Garden County can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 248th, while Morrill is ranked 74th).
Garden County lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Payton Fornander, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 11 rebounds. That's the first time this season that Fornander scored 15 or more points. The team also got some help courtesy of Breanna Yates, who scored four points.
Even though they lost, Garden County were working as a unit and finished the game with ten assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
It was another big night for Brooklyn Brown, who scored 16 points along with four steals for Morrill. That makes it three consecutive games in which Brown has scored at least 25% of Morrill's points. Another player making a difference was Kinzley Hess, who scored nine points along with three steals.
Garden County bumped their record down to 1-3 with that loss, which was their third straight at home dating back to last season. As for Morrill, the victory makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 3-1.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Garden County won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Crawford at 3:00 p.m. on December 9th. Hopefully Crawford focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 30 on Tuesday. Morrill won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against Kimball at 4:30 p.m. on December 9th. Hopefully Kimball focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 29 on Friday.
