The Sandhills Valley Mavericks struggled with assists on Tuesday (the Cozad Haymakers had 11 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Sandhills Valley was dealt a 72-32 defeat at the hands of Cozad. Sandhills Valley was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 38-12.
Sandhills Valley's loss came despite strong showings from Cooper Layher and Leyton Connell. Layher scored 12 points along with eight rebounds, while Connell scored four points along with three steals.
Noah Shoemaker continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Cozad, scoring 26 points along with three steals. Shoemaker hasn't dropped below 16 points for four straight games. Another player making a difference was Monty Brooks-follmer, who scored 15 points along with four steals.
This is the second loss in a row for Sandhills Valley and nudges their season record down to 10-9. As for Cozad, they pushed their record up to 18-4 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Sandhills Valley will be staying on the road on Thursday to face off against Mullen on February 8th. Sandhills Valley is facing Mullen at the right time seeing as Mullen is stuck on a three-game losing streak. As for Cozad, they will head out on the road to square off against Broken Bow at 7:45 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Cozad focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up five on Tuesday.
