Basketball Game Preview: Sandy Valley Cardinals vs. Garaway Pirates

The Sandy Valley Cardinals will face off against the Garaway Pirates at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Sandy Valley will be strutting in after a victory while Garaway will be coming in after a loss.

Sandy Valley will head into Wednesday's game hoping to keep the good times rolling: they had to skate by with only a three-point margin when they last took the court, which might have inspired the 21-point drubbing they dealt Indian Valley on Wednesday. Sandy Valley was the clear victor by a 50-29 margin over Indian Valley. The Cardinals pushed the score to 48-14 by the end of the third, a deficit the Braves cut but never quite recovered from.

Meanwhile, Garaway was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their 17th straight defeat. They had to suffer through a 48-10 loss at the hands of Tuscarawas Valley. While losing is never fun, the Pirates can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 722nd, while the Trojans are ranked 154th).

Sandy Valley's win bumped their record up to 8-10. As for Garaway, their loss dropped their record down to 1-18.

Everything came up roses for Sandy Valley against Garaway when the teams last played back in December of 2024, as the squad secured a 52-19 victory. In that matchup, Sandy Valley amassed a halftime lead of 46-13, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Saturday.