Basketball Preview: Garinger Wildcats vs. Charlotte Catholic Cougars
Garinger is on a three-game streak of home wins, while the Cougars are on a ten-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Garinger Wildcats will take on the Charlotte Catholic Cougars at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Garinger will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps North Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 195th, while the Cougars are ranked fourth).
On Friday, Garinger had to suffer through a rough 72-43 loss at the hands of the Patriots. Garinger was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 37-16.
Despite the loss, Garinger saw an underclassman step up: Misa Garris scored 26 points along with eight rebounds and four steals. That was a full 60.5% of Garinger's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Imonee Patterson, who scored two points along with ten rebounds.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Catholic put the finishing touches on their 11th blowout victory of the season on Friday. They claimed a resounding 65-25 victory over Rocky River on the road. With Charlotte Catholic ahead 46-10 at the half, the game was all but over already.
Garinger has been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 12-9 record this season. As for Charlotte Catholic, they are on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 18-3 record this season.
Garinger was dealt a bruising 68-30 defeat at the hands of the Cougars in their previous meeting back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Charlotte Catholic's Blanca Thomas, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 12 rebounds. Now that Garinger knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
