Basketball Game Preview: Mountain Ridge Miners vs. Southern Rams

Mountain Ridge and Southern are an even 5-5 against one another since March of 2019, but not for long. The Mountain Ridge Miners will be playing in front of their home fans against the Southern Rams at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.

If Mountain Ridge beats Southern with 56 points on Friday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two contests with that exact score. Mountain Ridge greeted the New Year with with a 56-38 win over Northern Garrett. Winning may never get old, but the Miners sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.

Mountain Ridge can attribute much of their success to Taylor Lamberson, who posted 15 points, and Kealana Pua?Auli, who earned 14 points. Another player making a difference was Makayla Ziler, who had nine points.

Meanwhile, Southern is ranked highly in their home state and on Saturday they took on another highly ranked team in the form of Musselman. Southern simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Musselman 71-43. The Rams have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three matches by 28 points or more this season.

Southern's victory was their 16th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-1. As for Mountain Ridge, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 6-2 record this season.

Mountain Ridge and Southern were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in March of 2024, but Mountain Ridge came up empty-handed after a 55-54 defeat. Will Mountain Ridge have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.