Basketball Game Preview: Rickards Raiders vs. South Walton Seahawks

The Rickards Raiders will square off against the South Walton Seahawks at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Rickards is probably headed into the game with a chip on their shoulder considering Florida State University High School just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Tuesday. They fell 61-52 to the Seminoles. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 96th, while the Seminoles are ranked 25th).

Meanwhile, South Walton had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 19 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 62-60 victory over the Marlins. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Seahawks have posted since December 12, 2024.

South Walton is on a roll lately: they've won 14 of their last 18 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 15-9 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.3 points per game. As for Rickards, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 13-9.