The Maple River Eagles came tearing into Thursday's contest with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 18.3 points) and they left with even more momentum. They snuck past Oakes with a 49-45 win. The victory was all the more spectacular given Maple River's disadvantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 157th in Minnesota, while Oakes is ranked 42nd in North Dakota).
Oakes lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Lily Thorpe, who scored 12 points along with five rebounds and two steals. Another player making a difference was Kassidy Jackson, who scored 11 points along with two steals.
Maple River has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 17-9 record this season. As for Oakes, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 8-3.
Maple River won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Bethlehem Academy at 7:15 p.m. on January 12th. As for Oakes, they will head out on the road to square off against Sargent County at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Sargent County is on a four-game streak of home wins, Oakes a 13-game streak of away wins (dating back to last season)-- so someone will have to leave a streak behind on the court.
