Basketball Game Preview: North Providence Cougars vs. Prout Crusaders

The North Providence Cougars will square off against the Prout Crusaders at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. North Providence is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 54.1 points per game this season.

North Providence is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Central: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that North Providence blew Central out of the water with a 65-32 final score. The Cougars pushed the score to 48-27 by the end of the third, a deficit the Knights had little chance of recovering from.

Riddhi Mistry and Makenna Heon were among the main playmakers for North Providence as the former went 9 for 16 en route to 22 points in addition to eight boards and six assists and the latter went 9 of 17 on her way to 20 points and seven steals. Mistry is trending in the right direction considering she's improved her point production for four straight games. Elyse Brassard was another key player, putting up six points and 12 rebounds.

North Providence smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in nine consecutive matchups.

Meanwhile, Prout entered their tilt with Mt. Pleasant on Wednesday with ten consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with 11. They enjoyed a cozy 44-27 win over the Kilties. 44 seems to be a good number for the Crusaders as the team scooped up a victory with the same number of points in their previous game.

North Providence is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.7 points per game. As for Prout, they pushed their record up to 15-2 with the win, which was their fifth straight on the road.

North Providence was able to grind out a solid victory over Prout in their previous matchup back in December of 2021, winning 32-19. Will North Providence repeat their success, or does Prout have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.