Preview: Fairdale Bulldogs vs. Holy Cross Cougars
The Fairdale Bulldogs will head out on the road to square off against the Holy Cross Cougars at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Fairdale sitting on four straight wins and Holy Cross on three.
Fairdale can now show off eight landslide victories after their most recent match on Friday. Everything went their way against Southern as Fairdale made off with a 79-53 victory. Given Fairdale's advantage in MaxPreps' Kentucky basketball rankings (they are ranked 39th, while Southern is ranked 225th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Holy Cross proved they can win big last Tuesday (they won by 23) but on Friday they proved they can win the close ones too. They had just enough and edged Pleasure Ridge Park out 59-57. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Holy Cross can attribute much of their success to Jacob Hand, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and ten rebounds, and Michael Loftis, who scored 20 points along with six assists and two steals. Loftis continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. Alex Jenkins was another key contributor, scoring nine points.
Fairdale has been performing well recently as they've won eight of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 19-5 record this season. As for Holy Cross, their victory bumped their record up to 14-9.
Fairdale beat Holy Cross 69-59 in their previous meeting back in February of 2023. The rematch might be a little tougher for Fairdale since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
