After both having extra time off, the Wildwood Wildcats and the Citrus Hurricanes will dust off their jerseys to challenge one another at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Wildwood has five straight wins, Citrus has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
While Wildwood didn't have the best season last year (they finished 4-18), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They breezed by East Ridge to the tune of 77-48 last Friday. The Wildcats have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four games by 24 points or more this season.
| 12/20/24 vs East Ridge | 22 |
| 12/12/23 vs West Port | 21 |
| 01/17/24 vs Halifax Academy | 19 |
| 12/21/23 vs Zephyrhills | 18 |
| 11/25/23 vs P.K. Yonge | 16 |
Louis Brown went supernova for Wildwood, going 9 of 15 on his way to 22 points. The dominant performance gave Brown a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Traeston Armstrong, who went 5 of 8 on his way to 16 points and three steals.
Wildwood was working as a unit and finished the game with 11 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as East Ridge only racked up five assists.
Meanwhile, Citrus played a tough match two weeks ago in which they were outscored in every quarter. They were outmatched by Springstead and fell 77-38. The Hurricanes were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 47-21.
The match pitted two dominant forwards against one another in Ashton Jenkins and Zion McKenzie. McKenzie had a great game and went 10 of 14 on his way to 23 points and six steals. Meanwhile, Jenkins did his best for the losing side, putting up eight points and six rebounds.
Wildwood has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-2 record this season. As for Citrus, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-8.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Wildwood has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 28 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Citrus struggles in that department as they've been averaging 30.9 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Everything came up roses for Wildwood against Citrus in their previous meeting back in November, as the squad secured an 88-54 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Wildwood since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
