Basketball Game Preview: Lakeside Rams vs. Benton Panthers

The Lakeside Rams are taking a road trip to challenge the Benton Panthers at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

Lakeside is headed into Tuesday's match hungry for a win as their strong season has now been derailed by two straight defeats. They were dealt a 63-21 loss at the hands of Pulaski Academy on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Rams can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arkansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 47th, while the Bruins are ranked eighth).

Meanwhile, Benton had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 27 points) and they went ahead and made it seven on Monday. They came out on top against the Yellowjackets by a score of 65-55.

Benton's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 17-7. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.8 points over those games. As for Lakeside, their defeat dropped their record down to 18-9.

Lakeside was able to grind out a solid win over Benton in their previous meeting back in January, winning 57-44. The rematch might be a little tougher for Lakeside since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.