Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up ten more assists than your opponent, a fact the Wayne Blue Devils proved on Saturday. They managed a 46-40 win over O'Neill. That's another feather in the cap for Wayne, who also won these teams' last head-to-head.
Wayne can attribute much of their success to Frantzdie Barner, who scored 12 points along with five rebounds and four steals. Lily Gubbels was another key contributor, scoring seven points.
Several Eagles players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Hannah Hilker, who scored 14 points along with five rebounds. Hilker scored a full 35% of O'Neill's points, the fifth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lauryn Dusatko, who scored nine points along with five rebounds and three steals.
Wayne's win bumped their record up to 3-4. As for O'Neill, they bumped their record down to 2-5 with that defeat, which was their ninth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Wayne will square off against Guardian Angels Central Catholic at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Guardian Angels Central Catholic presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Wayne in Nebraska (Guardian Angels Central Catholic is ranked 38th, while Wayne is ranked 157th). O'Neill will be home for the holidays to greet Crofton at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Crofton has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 460 points over their last seven contests.
