Blythewood is 1-9 against Westwood since December of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Blythewood Bengals will be playing at home against the Westwood Redhawks at 6:00 p.m. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Blythewood sitting on nine straight wins and Westwood on three.
Blythewood will bounce into Friday's matchup after beating Sumter, who they had gone 0-4 against in their four prior meetings. Blythewood walked away with a 54-46 victory over Sumter last Tuesday. Given the Bengals' advantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked fourth, while the Gamecocks are ranked 63rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
| 01/14/25 @ Sumter | 17 |
| 01/09/25 vs West Florence | 28 |
| 01/08/25 @ Lugoff-Elgin | 31 |
| 01/06/25 vs Spring Valley | 18 |
| 01/03/25 @ Westwood | 28 |
Blythewood's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Chase Thomas, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 11 boards. Thomas' evening made it 16 games in a row in which she has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of India Williams, who posted 16 points and five rebounds.
Blythewood smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive boards in 15 consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Westwood beat Sumter 47-39 on Monday.
Westwood found their leader in freshman Lyric Rogers, who went 5 for 11 on her way to 14 points. The dominant performance gave Rogers a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Destiny Omeire, who had nine points.
Blythewood's victory was their eighth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 18-1. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 70.5 points per game. As for Westwood, their win bumped their record up to 9-11.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Blythewood has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 33.4 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Westwood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 32.8 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Blythewood was able to grind out a solid victory over Westwood in their previous matchup on January 3rd, winning 61-50. Will Blythewood repeat their success, or does Westwood have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
