Basketball Preview: Thunder Ridge Longhorns vs. Rock Hills Grizzlies
Thunder Ridge is 2-8 against Rock Hills since February of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Thunder Ridge Longhorns will take on the Rock Hills Grizzlies in a tournament on Tuesday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Thunder Ridge is looking to give their home crowd another W after opening their season at home on Friday. They blew past Stockton 60-36. The victory was some much needed relief for the Longhorns as it spelled an end to their 11-game losing streak dating back to last season.
Evan Slavik was a one-man wrecking crew for Thunder Ridge as he dropped a double-double on 27 points and 22 rebounds. The dominant performance also gave Slavik a new career-high in assists (five). Another player making a difference was Connor Engelke, who posted nine points plus seven rebounds.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Rock Hills on Friday. They walked away with a 67-55 win over Pike Valley.
Rock Hills relied on the efforts of Cooper McDill, who went 7 for 12 en route to 23 points plus six assists and two steals, and Eli Whelchel, who went 11 for 12 en route to 23 points plus five rebounds and two blocks. The matchup was McDill's fifth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Tristyn Reynolds, who scored 11 points.
Rock Hills was working as a unit and finished the game with 13 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Pike Valley only posted seven.
Thunder Ridge came up short against Rock Hills when the teams last played back in February, falling 41-36. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of McDill, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and 12 rebounds. Now that Thunder Ridge knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
