Basketball Game Preview: Pineville Rebels vs. Ruston Bearcats

Pineville is 1-9 against Ruston since February of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Pineville Rebels will head out to square off against the Ruston Bearcats at 7:00 p.m.

Pineville is headed into Friday's contest looking for a big change in momentum after dropping their sixth straight game on Friday. They took a 52-45 hit to the loss column at the hands of Airline. While losing is never fun, the Rebels can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Louisiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 289th, while the Vikings are ranked 109th).

Meanwhile, Ruston beat West Monroe 73-63 on Tuesday.

Ruston is also on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 8-4 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.3 points per game. As for Pineville, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-15.

Pineville ended up a good deal behind Ruston in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, losing 80-61. Can Pineville avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.