Preview: Howard Hawks vs. Cottage Cougars
After four games on the road, Howard is heading back home. They will take on the Cottage Cougars at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few points on average, (Howard: 24.5, Cottage: 28.3) so any points scored will be well earned.
In what's become a running theme this season, Howard gave their fans yet another huge win on Thursday. They blew past Tapestry Charter 39-16. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 27-5.
Howard's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Keira Ryan, who scored seven points, and Ava Beck, who scored eight points along with six rebounds.
Meanwhile, Cottage had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 16.5 points), and they went ahead and made it nine on Tuesday. They strolled past Atlanta Jewish Academy with points to spare, taking the game 34-20.
Cottage's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Grace Workman, who dropped a double-double on ten points and 12 steals. Workman has been hot recently, having posted four or more steals the last four times she's played. Another player making a difference was Alyssa Briggs, who almost dropped a double-double on nine points and ten rebounds.
Howard has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 8-5 record this season. As for Cottage, their victory was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 16-6.
Howard came up short against Cottage in their previous matchup two weeks ago, falling 36-30. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Briggs, who almost dropped a triple-double on 21 points, 13 rebounds, and nine steals. Now that Howard knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
