Basketball Game Preview: Anna Coyotes vs. Melissa Cardinals

Anna is 1-9 against Melissa since February of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Anna Coyotes will take on the Melissa Cardinals in a holiday battle at at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Anna will head into Friday's matchup on the come-up: they were handed a 20-point defeat in their previous outing, but that didn't affect their clutch gene on Friday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past McKinney North 43-40. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Coyotes have posted since November 9th.

Meanwhile, Melissa entered their tilt with Sherman on Friday with eight consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with nine. They blew past the Bearcats 45-24. The Cardinals have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won nine games by 21 points or more this season.

Melissa pushed their record up to 14-4 with the victory, which was their sixth straight on the road. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 29.7 points per game. As for Anna, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-6 record this season.

Anna was able to grind out a solid win over Melissa when the teams last played back in December of 2022, winning 66-58. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Melissa's Kennedy Stout, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and ten boards. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Anna still be able to contain Stout? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.