The Elm Creek Buffaloes had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 24 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They rang in the new year with a 59-50 victory over Loomis. That result was just more of the same for these two, as Elm Creek also won the last time the pair played back in January of 2023.
Elm Creek's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Quin Oberg led the charge by scoring 20 points. That makes it nine consecutive games in which Oberg has scored at least 25% of Elm Creek's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kade Sindt, who scored 11 points along with seven assists and seven rebounds.
Loomis' defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Cale Nelson, who scored 19 points along with five rebounds. The match was Nelson's third in a row with at least ten points. Tyson Essex was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with three steals.
Even though they lost, Loomis were working as a unit and finished the game with 12 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Elm Creek only racked up 19 assists.
Elm Creek is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 7-4 record this season. As for Loomis, their loss dropped their record down to 6-6.
Elm Creek won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Wilcox-Hildreth at 4:30 p.m. on January 6th. Wilcox-Hildreth is out to stop a five-game streak of losses at home. Loomis will take on Arapahoe at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Arapahoe focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 15 on Friday.
