Basketball Game Preview: Riverbend Bears vs. Massaponax Panthers

The Riverbend Bears are taking a road trip to challenge the Massaponax Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Riverbend has insisted on making their last three contests complete nail-biters, turning in a record of 2-1 during that stretch of close contests.

Last Thursday, Riverbend sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 67-65 victory over Brooke Point. That's two games straight that the Bears have won by exactly two points.

Amani Gipson

Points

02/06/25 vs Brooke Point	19
02/04/25 @ Stafford	17
02/03/25 @ Glen Allen	25
01/31/25 vs Colonial Forge	19
01/28/25 @ North Stafford	23

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Riverbend to victory, but perhaps none more so than Amani Gipson, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and ten boards. Gipson's evening made it five games in a row in which he has scored at least 17 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Nate Tyler, who went 6 of 14 on his way to 18 points and seven assists.

Riverbend was working as a unit and finished the game with 22 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since the start of last season.

Meanwhile, Massaponax beat Stafford 68-57 on Friday. The Panthers haven't had any issues with the Indians recently, as the game was their ninth consecutive win against them.

Massaponax's victory bumped their record up to 13-9. As for Riverbend, their win bumped their record up to 14-5.

Riverbend came up short against Massaponax in their previous meeting back in January, falling 56-51. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Massaponax's Christian Myers, who went 8 for 16 to rack up 25 points. Now that Riverbend knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.