Basketball Game Preview: Canton Tigers vs. Hydro-Eakly Bobcats

Canton is 1-6 against Hydro-Eakly since December of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. A feisty cat fight is on tap when the Canton Tigers challenge the Hydro-Eakly Bobcats at 6:30 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Canton is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Aline-Cleo 83-5 on Tuesday. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Oklahoma basketball rankings (they are ranked 103rd, while the Cougars are ranked 481st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Hydro-Eakly waltzed into their match on Wednesday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They put the hurt on the Tigers with a sharp 68-47 win.

Canton pushed their record up to 12-3 with the victory, which was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 24.8 points per game. As for Hydro-Eakly, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 11-7 record this season.

Canton strolled past Hydro-Eakly when the teams last played back in January of 2024 by a score of 43-26. The rematch might be a little tougher for Canton since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.