Basketball Game Preview: Melbourne Bearkatz vs. Valley Springs Tigers

The Melbourne Bearkatz will venture away from home to square off against the Valley Springs Tigers at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Melbourne will head into Tuesday's match on the come-up: they were handed a heart-breaking two-point defeat in their last contest, but they sure didn't let that happen against Cave City on Tuesday. Melbourne simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Cave City 62-31. Given the Bearkatz's advantage in MaxPreps' Arkansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 38th, while the Cavemen are ranked 199th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, it was a proper cat-fight when Valley Springs challenged Yellville-Summit on Tuesday. Valley Springs breezed by Yellville-Summit to the tune of 54-19.

Melbourne's victory bumped their record up to 17-5. As for Valley Springs, they are also on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which somehow still isn't as good as their 23-6 record this season.

Melbourne didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Valley Springs in their previous matchup on January 7th, but they still walked away with a 40-35 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Melbourne since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.