Basketball Preview: Southwestern Randolph Cougars vs. Eastern Randolph Wildcats
Southwestern Randolph has enjoyed a two-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will face off against the Eastern Randolph Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Last Friday, Southwestern Randolph came up short against the Tigers and fell 61-49. While losing is never fun, Southwestern Randolph can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 426th, while the Tigers are ranked 135th).
Meanwhile, a well-balanced attack led Eastern Randolph over the Warriors in every quarter on their way to victory on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Eastern Randolph blew the Warriors out of the water with a 87-51 final score. Eastern Randolph pushed the score to 58-31 by the end of the third, a deficit the Warriors had little chance of recovering from.
Nicah Taylor was his usual excellent self, scoring 19 points along with six assists and six rebounds. Taylor is crushing the steal category: he's posted at least two every time he's taken the court this season. Another player making a difference was Timothy Brower, who scored 14 points along with two steals.
Southwestern Randolph's loss dropped their record down to 7-14. As for Eastern Randolph, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 11-8 record this season.
Southwestern Randolph ended up a good deal behind the Wildcats in their previous matchup back in January, losing 87-70. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Brower, who scored 34 points along with three steals. Now that Southwestern Randolph knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
