The De Beque Dragons will head out on the road to square off against the Nucla Mustangs at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. De Beque is coming into the contest hot, having won their last four games.
Last Saturday, De Beque was able to grind out a solid victory over North Park, taking the game 38-31. Given the Dragons' advantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 114th, while the Wildcats are ranked 277th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Nucla). They blew past Ouray 66-7 on Thursday. With the Mustangs ahead 42-3 at the half, the match was all but over already.
Nucla's win came from a few key players De Beque will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Viviana Zunich, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 13 boards. The dominant performance gave her a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Kendra McCluer, who went 8 for 15 en route to 19 points in addition to five rebounds and four steals.
Nucla smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 32 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in 27 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Nucla has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-2 record this season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 23.9 points per game. As for De Beque, their record is now 9-3.
De Beque skirted past Nucla 35-32 when the teams last played back in February of 2024. Does De Beque have another victory up their sleeve, or will Nucla turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
