The Lincoln County Lynx and the Needles Mustangs will face off at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday without much rest having both just played. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Needles will be up against a hot Lincoln County team: the squad just extended their winning streak to six. Everything went Lincoln County's way against Laughlin on Friday as Lincoln County made off with a 74-54 win. The Lynx pushed the score to 64-36 by the end of the third, a deficit the Cougars cut but never quite recovered from.
| 01/17/25 @ Laughlin | 11 |
| 01/14/25 @ GV Christian | 10 |
| 01/11/25 vs Awaken Christian | 12 |
Kalen Bart was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 26 points and 11 boards. He has been hot recently, having posted ten or more rebounds the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Rowdy Lloyd, who went 7 for 14 on his way to 17 points along with five assists and three steals.
Meanwhile, Needles put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They really took it to White Pine for the full four quarters, racking up a 77-24 victory. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 43-15.
Needles' win came from a few key players Lincoln County will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Darrell Russell, who went 7 of 14 en route to 17 points and six assists. Another player making a difference was Holden Jones, who went 5 for 8 on his way to 13 points and four steals.
Needles was working as a unit and finished the game with 27 assists. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now posted at least 21 assists in four consecutive games.
Needles pushed their record up to 19-0 with the win, which was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 35.5 points. As for Lincoln County, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Lincoln County and Needles are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Lincoln County hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 56.5 points per game. However, it's not like Needles struggles in that department as they've been averaging 77.2 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Lincoln County took a serious blow against Needles when the teams last played back in December of 2024, falling 74-38. That matchup was all but decided by halftime, at which point Lincoln County was down 38-16.
