Basketball Preview: Foothill Cougars vs. Chico Panthers
Foothill and the Panthers are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2019, but not for long. The Foothill Cougars will be staying on the road on Tuesday to face off against the Chico Panthers at 7:30 p.m. on February 6th. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Foothill can now show off ten landslide victories after their most recent matchup on Thursday. They were the clear victor by a 54-31 margin over Shasta. Foothill pushed the score to 49-21 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wolves cut but never quite recovered from.
Foothill's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Lexi Peters, who scored 14 points along with six rebounds and two steals. Peters hasn't dropped below two steals for six straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Kalea Thomas, who scored seven points along with five assists and three steals.
Meanwhile, Chico had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 11 points), and they went ahead and made it nine on Thursday. They breezed by Red Bluff at home to the tune of 59-31. Given Chico's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 97th, while the Spartans are ranked 571st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Foothill is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 17-7 record this season. As for Chico, they pushed their record up to 18-7 with that victory, which was their sixth straight at home.
Foothill couldn't quite finish off the Panthers in their previous meeting back in January and fell 61-58. Can Foothill avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
