Basketball Game Preview: Colerain Cardinals vs. Lakota East Thunderhawks

Colerain is 1-9 against Lakota East since December of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Colerain Cardinals will square off against the Lakota East Thunderhawks at 6:00 p.m.

Last Wednesday, Colerain ended up a good deal behind Oak Hills and lost 55-41. While losing is never fun, the Cardinals can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 435th, while the Highlanders are ranked 137th).

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Lakota East). They claimed a resounding 72-39 victory over Middletown. The team's explosion on offense also rewarded the Thunderhawks with their most commanding win of the season.

Lakota East is also on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven contests, which provided a massive bump to their 9-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 51.4 points per game. As for Colerain, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-10.

Colerain was taken down by Lakota East 57-11 in their previous matchup back in February of 2024. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Colerain was down 42-7.