Basketball Game Preview: Shelby-Rising City Huskies vs. Riverside Chargers

The Shelby-Rising City Huskies will face off against the Riverside Chargers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Shelby-Rising City easily dispatched Cedar Bluffs last Tuesday, but unfortunately both the margin and the ultimate result were a different story in this one. Shelby-Rising City fell just short of High Plains by a score of 54-51 on Friday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest defeat the Huskies have suffered since December 2, 2023.

Shelby-Rising City might have lost, but man, Dalton Pokorney was a machine: he dropped a double-double on 25 points and 12 boards. Pokorney continues to improve, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. Another player making a difference was Nixon Thelen, who posted 11 points.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Riverside). They blew past Heartland Lutheran 70-37 on Thursday. With the Chargers ahead 40-15 at the half, the matchup was all but over already.

Riverside's win came from a few key players Shelby-Rising City will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Larry Diessner, who earned 16 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Carter Keehn, who had 15 points.

Riverside is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 5-6 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 58.7 points per game. As for Shelby-Rising City, they have traveled a rocky road recently having lost four of their last five contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-5 record this season.