The Cozad Haymakers won the last time they faced the Minden Whippets, and things went their way on Friday too. Cozad came out on top against the Whippets by a score of 50-37. Given Cozad's advantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 26th, while the Whippets are ranked 95th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Cozad's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Noah Shoemaker led the charge by scoring 16 points along with five assists and three steals. Another player making a difference was Monty Brooks-follmer, who scored 14 points along with two steals.
Minden lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Jake Ryan, who scored 12 points along with two steals. Ryan has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last four times he's played. Brycen Schwenka was another key contributor, scoring eight points along with ten rebounds.
Cozad is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 16-4 record this season. As for Minden, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 7-8.
Cozad and the Centurions will face off at 6:30 p.m. on February 5th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Hopefully Centura focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 20 last Tuesday. As for Minden, they won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against the Swedes at 6:00 p.m. on February 3rd.
