Basketball Game Preview: Oroville Hornets vs. Republic Tigers

The Oroville Hornets will square off against the Republic Tigers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Republic is facing Oroville at the wrong time: Oroville suffered their first home loss of the season on Monday and they're likely out for redemption. They were beaten by the Mustangs 76-43.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Republic). They blew past Columbia 80-37 last Friday. The Tigers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four contests by 24 points or more this season.

Republic found their leader in freshman Landon Short, who went 15 for 26 on his way to 35 points in addition to six assists and six boards. Short's evening made it nine games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lincoln Short, who went 5 of 8 on his way to 10 points along with eight boards and three blocks.

Republic was working as a unit and finished the game with 25 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

The victory (which was Republic's third in a row) raised their record to 7-2. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.7 points per game. As for Oroville, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 4-4.

Oroville was taken down by Republic 66-27 in their previous meeting on December 10th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Short, who went 18 of 27 en route to 38 points along with six rebounds and four steals. Now that Oroville knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.