Preview: West Springfield Terriers vs. Holyoke Purple Knights
The West Springfield Terriers will head out on the road to challenge the Holyoke Purple Knights at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. West Springfield will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Massachusetts Rankings (they are ranked 265th, while Holyoke is ranked 76th).
It's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 81-52, which was the final score in West Springfield's tilt against Pittsfield on Tuesday. West Springfield has not had much luck with Pittsfield recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
Meanwhile, Holyoke had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 10.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They walked away with an 82-74 victory over Northampton. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
West Springfield dropped their record down to 2-13 with that defeat, which was their third straight at home. As for Holyoke, their victory bumped their record up to 10-6.
West Springfield took their victory against Holyoke in their previous meeting back in January of 2023 by a conclusive 73-49. The rematch might be a little tougher for West Springfield since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
