Basketball Preview: Blue Ridge Fighting Tigers vs. St. Joseph's Catholic Knights
The Blue Ridge Fighting Tigers will venture away from home to take on the St. Joseph's Catholic Knights at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Blue Ridge is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 59.2 points per game this season.
Blue Ridge is headed into the contest having just suffered their closest defeat since February 8th on Tuesday. They fell just short of Landrum by a score of 56-54. The loss continues a trend for the Fighting Tigers in their matchups with the Cardinals: they've now lost five in a row.
Blue Ridge's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Trey Bradley, who almost dropped a double-double on 12 points and nine assists, and Paul Bishop, who earned 17 points along with six rebounds and five steals. Those nine assists gave Bradley a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Andrew Gray, who scored four points plus eight rebounds.
Even though they lost, Blue Ridge smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive rebounds in four consecutive games.
Meanwhile, it may have taken overtime to finish the job, but St. Joseph's Catholic ultimately got the result they hoped for on Monday. They secured a 71-67 W over Travelers Rest. The victory was just business as usual for the Knights, who after three games remain undefeated this season.
Blue Ridge's loss dropped their record down to 1-3. As for St. Joseph's Catholic, their win bumped their record up to 3-0.
Blue Ridge came up short against St. Joseph's Catholic in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, falling 42-30. Can Blue Ridge avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
