Basketball Game Preview: Cottage Cougars vs. Cross Keys Phoenix

Cottage and Cross Keys are an even 5-5 against one another since December of 2019, but not for long. The Cottage Cougars will be playing at home against the Cross Keys Phoenix at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Cottage will be strutting in after a victory while Cross Keys will be coming in after a defeat.

Last Tuesday, Cottage escaped with a win against Howard by the margin of a single free throw, 51-50.

Meanwhile, Cross Keys played a tough contest on Wednesday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They lost 54-32 to Excel Christian Academy. The Phoenix have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Cottage is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-11 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.0 points per game. As for Cross Keys, their loss dropped their record down to 12-9.

Cottage came up short against Cross Keys when the teams last played back in November of 2024, falling 49-37. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cross Keys' Dre Tucker, who posted 17 points and seven steals. Now that Cottage knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.