Madison is 2-7 against the Warriors since January of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Madison Dragons will be playing in front of their home fans against the Neligh-Oakdale Warriors at 7:45 p.m. The timing is sure in Madison's favor as the team sits on five straight wins at home while the Warriors have been banged up by six consecutive losses on the road dating back to last season.
Madison managed to keep up with the Tigers until halftime on Tuesday, but things quickly went downhill from there. Madison suffered a tough 55-30 defeat at the hands of the Tigers. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Madison in their matchups with the Tigers: they've now lost five in a row.
Despite the defeat, Madison had strong showings from Jose Velez, who scored 12 points along with two steals, and Bodonn Sweeney, who scored eight points.
Meanwhile, Neligh-Oakdale struggled with assists on Saturday (the Huskies had 18 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Neligh-Oakdale's rough 68-43 defeat to the Huskies might stick with them for a while. While losing is never fun, Neligh-Oakdale can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Nebraska basketball rankings (they are ranked 253rd, while the Huskies are ranked 88th).
Despite the defeat, Neligh-Oakdale got a solid performance out of Chase Furstenau, who scored 28 points along with eight rebounds and five steals. That was a full 65.1% of Neligh-Oakdale's points, marking the 13th time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Neligh-Oakdale struggled to work together and finished the game with only two assists. They are winless (0-4) when they just don't pass the ball.
Madison's defeat dropped their record down to 9-6. As for Neligh-Oakdale, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-14.
Madison beat the Warriors 46-38 in their previous meeting back in January of 2023. Does Madison have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Warriors turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
