Basketball Game Preview: Melissa Cardinals vs. Lovejoy Leopards

Melissa and Lovejoy are an even 5-5 against one another since December of 2015, but not for long. The Melissa Cardinals will face off against the Lovejoy Leopards at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Melissa is coming into the contest hot, having won their last five games.

Last Friday, Melissa was able to grind out a solid victory over Denison, taking the game 42-31. Given the Cardinals' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 184th, while the Yellow Jackets are ranked 370th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, it may have taken overtime to finish the job, but Lovejoy ultimately got the result they hoped for on Friday. They walked away with a 56-49 win over McKinney North.

Lovejoy has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 22-8 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.6 points per game. As for Melissa, they pushed their record up to 21-8 with the victory, which was their third straight at home.

Melissa and Lovejoy were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting on January 3rd, but Melissa came up empty-handed after a 32-31 loss. Can Melissa avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.