Basketball Preview: Tucker County Mountain Lions vs. Southern Rams
The Tucker County Mountain Lions will head out on the road to challenge the Southern Rams at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tucker County will be looking to extend their current 11-game winning streak.
Even though Pendleton County scored an imposing 60 points on Tuesday, Tucker County still came out on top. Tucker County took their matchup against the Wildcat 72-60. Given Tucker County's advantage in MaxPreps' West Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 20th, while the Wildcat are ranked 67th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Tucker County's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Ashton Lycliter, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 14 rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Lycliter has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Owen Knotts, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 15 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Southern didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against the Fighting Irish on Tuesday, but they still walked away with a 55-50 win. The win made it back-to-back wins for Southern.
Jared Haskiell continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, shooting 4-for-6 from deep and almost dropping a double-double on 21 points and nine steals. He has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last seven times he's played. Joel Campbell was another key contributor, scoring nine points along with six steals.
Tucker County's win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 12-2. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 73.3 points per game. As for Southern, their victory bumped their record up to 9-6.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Tucker County and the Rams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Tucker County hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 66.9 points per game. However, it's not like Southern struggles in that department as they've been averaging 55.8 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Everything came up roses for Tucker County against the Rams in their previous meeting on Friday as the team secured a 76-43 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Tucker County since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
