Basketball Game Preview: Santa Rosa Panthers vs. Ukiah Wildcats

A feisty cat fight is on tap when the Santa Rosa Panthers face off against the Ukiah Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday...

Santa Rosa is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Healdsburg just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Thursday. They fell 46-34 to the Greyhounds. While the Panthers didn't get the win, they did start the game off strong, beating the Greyhounds 13-9 in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Ukiah had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 20.2 points) and they went ahead and made it seven on Thursday. They took their game with ease, bagging a 68-14 victory over the Prospectors. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 251st, while the Prospectors are ranked 862nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Ukiah has also been performing well recently as they've won ten of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 13-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.3 points per game. As for Santa Rosa, their defeat was their first in the league, dropping their league record down to 3-1 and their overall record down to 13-4.

Santa Rosa lost to Ukiah on the road by a decisive 58-40 margin in their previous matchup back in May of 2021. Can Santa Rosa avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.