The Hodgeman County Longhorns will take on the Meade Buffaloes at 3:00 p.m. on Monday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Hodgeman County comes in on three and Meade on five.
Hodgeman County stacked a fourth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Tuesday. They breezed by Minneola at home to the tune of 61-32. Given Hodgeman County's advantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 31st, while Minneola is ranked 250th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Hodgeman County's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Morgan Ruff, who scored 11 points along with eight assists and eight rebounds, and Taylor Bamberger, who scored 20 points along with six rebounds and four steals. That's the first time this season that Ruff posted eight or more assists. Blake Dansel was another key contributor, scoring six points along with six rebounds.
Meanwhile, winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up 11 more assists than your opponent, a fact Meade proved on Friday. They took down Ashland 51-33.
The match pitted two dominant players against one another in Sayler Stapleton and Jaya Milburn. Stapleton had a great game and scored 19 points along with four steals. Meanwhile, Milburn was balling out in the loss, scoring 13 points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Hodgeman County has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season. As for Meade, their win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 7-4.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Hodgeman County have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 27.4 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Meade struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 25.7 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Hodgeman County didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Meade in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, but they still walked away with a 46-41 victory. Will Hodgeman County repeat their success, or does Meade have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
