Basketball Game Preview: Harding Raiders vs. Austintown-Fitch Falcons

The Harding Raiders will square off against the Austintown-Fitch Falcons at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Harding is headed into the match having just suffered their closest defeat since December 9, 2023 on Saturday. They fell just short of Athens by a score of 52-50.

Meanwhile, Austintown-Fitch entered their game against St. Vincent-St. Mary on Saturday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. Austintown-Fitch came up short against St. Vincent-St. Mary, falling 58-33. While losing is never fun, the Falcons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 179th, while the Fighting Irish are ranked 35th).

Austintown-Fitch's loss ended a four-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 6-4. As for Harding, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-3.

Harding skirted past Austintown-Fitch 32-29 in their previous meeting back in January of 2024. Will Harding repeat their success, or does Austintown-Fitch have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.