The Silver Lake Mustangs waltzed into their match Friday with three straight wins but they left with four. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Blue Hill 43-41. That's two games straight that Silver Lake has won by exactly two points.
Silver Lake's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Makenna Karr, who scored nine points along with six rebounds and three steals. Another player making a difference was Katy Soucek, who scored seven points along with 11 rebounds and three steals.
Ellie Mangers and Reece Mlady certainly did their best on Friday to try and avoid the loss. Mangers scored 21 points along with four steals, while Mlady dropped a double-double on 11 points and ten rebounds. Mangers scored a full 51.2% of Blue Hill's points, the fourth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Silver Lake's win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 8-2. As for Blue Hill, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 2-8.
Silver Lake won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Heartland Lutheran at 4:00 p.m. on January 6th. Heartland Lutheran will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Nebraska Rankings (they are ranked 250th, while Silver Lake is ranked 124th). As for Blue Hill, they will be playing at home against Gibbon at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Gibbon has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.
