The Fillmore Central Panthers's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Thursday after their fourth straight loss. They opened the new year with a less-than-successful 36-29 defeat to Central City. While losing is never fun, Fillmore Central can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 233rd, while Central City is ranked 111th).
Several Panthers players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Makenna Mccoy, who scored 14 points. Those 14 points set a new season-high mark for her. Another player making a difference was Jordyn Stassines, who scored five points along with five rebounds.
Fillmore Central struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only three offensive rebounds. That's the fewest offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Central City was led to victory by Jerzie Schindler and Reagan Fousek. Schindler scored ten points along with seven rebounds, while Fousek scored nine points along with three steals. Fousek is absolutely dominating the steal category: she's posted at least two every time she's taken the court this season. Teagan Sadler was another key contributor, scoring five points.
Fillmore Central's defeat dropped their record down to 1-10. As for Central City, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 7-4 record this season.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Fillmore Central will challenge Superior on Saturday. Superior has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last four games. Central City won't have much time to rest: their next match is against Arcadia/Loup City at 6:00 p.m. on January 5th. Hopefully Arcadia/Loup City focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 21 on Thursday.
