Basketball Game Preview: Covington Buccs vs. Bethel Bees

Covington and Bethel are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2019, but not for long. The Covington Buccs will take on the Bethel Bees at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Covington will be looking to extend their current eight-game winning streak.

Last Saturday, Covington made easy work of Troy Christian and carried off a 51-29 victory. The Buccs pushed the score to 48-18 by the end of the third, a deficit the Eagles cut but never quite recovered from.

Meanwhile, Bethel came tearing into Monday's match with six straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 14.3 points) and they left with even more momentum. They walked away with a 36-29 win over the Pirates. Given the Bees' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 215th, while the Pirates are ranked 539th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Bethel pushed their record up to 10-3 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road. As for Covington, they are on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 12-2 record this season.

Covington was able to grind out a solid win over Bethel in their previous meeting back in December of 2024, winning 46-36. The rematch might be a little tougher for Covington since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.