Preview: Rickards Raiders vs. Riverside Generals
The Rickards Raiders's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Riverside Generals at 7:00 p.m. on February 20th. Both teams come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Rickards had already proven themselves in the regular season, and didn't miss a beat now that it's playoff time. They claimed a resounding 68-40 win over Columbia on the road. Given Rickards' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 57th, while Columbia is ranked 213th), the result on Thursday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Rickards to victory, but perhaps none more so than Romie Cosby, who scored 18 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Benjamin Plummer, who scored 14 points.
Meanwhile, Riverside had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 18 points), and they went ahead and made it six on Thursday. They snuck past Deltona with a 33-27 victory. Despite the victory, that was the fewest points Riverside has scored all season.
Riverside's victory was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jaquan Wells, who scored eight points along with 12 rebounds and seven blocks. Wells has been hot recently, having posted eight or more rebounds the last six times he's played. Another player making a difference was Jesus Rice, who scored nine points along with two steals.
Rickards is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 22-6 record this season. As for Riverside, their victory bumped their record up to 18-8.
Fans should be in for an exciting game on Tuesday as the two teams are among the highest scoring teams in the league right now. Rickards hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 57 points per game. However, it's not like Riverside struggles in that department as they've been averaging 57.3 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Rickards strolled past Riverside in their previous meeting back in January by a score of 69-50. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Riverside's Vedarius Thomas, who scored 15 points. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Rickards still be able to contain Thomas? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
