Basketball Game Preview: Royal Valley Panthers vs. Holton Wildcats

A feisty cat fight will be fought as the Panthers face off against the Wildcats on Tuesday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Royal Valley will roll into the contest after a wild two-game stretch: they didn't score any points on Thursday, then bounced right back against Perry-Lecompton on Friday. Royal Valley blew past Perry-Lecompton 56-20. The victory continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Kaws: they've now won three in a row.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Holton, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Monday. They breezed past Sabetha to the tune of 55-27 on Friday. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Kansas basketball rankings (they are ranked 100th, while the Bluejays are ranked 272nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Holton pushed their record up to 10-9 with the win, which was their third straight at home. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 26.3 points. As for Royal Valley, their victory bumped their record up to 11-6-1.

Royal Valley didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Holton in their previous meeting on February 4th, but they still walked away with a 55-50 win. Will Royal Valley repeat their success, or does Holton have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.