The Ainsworth Bulldogs fought the good fight in their overtime game against the Holdrege Dusters on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Dusters by a score of 75-73. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Saturday (60), Ainsworth still had to take the loss.
Ainsworth lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Carter Nelson, who scored 30 points along with six rebounds and three blocks. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Nelson has scored all season. Trey Appelt was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 18 points and 14 rebounds.
It was another big night for Garret Johnson, who scored 33 points along with seven rebounds and five assists for Holdrege. The team also got some help courtesy of Wyatt Pfeifer, who scored 12 points along with seven assists.
Ainsworth are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 9-6. That rough patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.7 points per game. As for Holdrege, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 9-7 record this season.
Ainsworth will face off against McCook at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Holdrege will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against Ogallala at 3:30 p.m. on January 26th. Ogallala has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 1,170 points over their last 16 matches.
