Basketball Recap: River Ridge Falls Despite Big Games from Joe Winter and Damon Dittmar

River Ridge lost against Dakota back in December of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Saturday. The River Ridge Wildcats lost 62-42 to the Dakota Indians. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 462nd, while the Indians are ranked 144th).

Damon Dittmar and Joe Winter certainly did their best on Saturday to avoid the loss. Dittmar posted 12 points, while Winter went 7 of 16 en route to 15 points. The match was Winter's ninth in a row with at least ten points.

River Ridge dropped their record down to 9-11 with the loss, which was their third straight on the road. As for Dakota, the win (which was their fifth in a row) raised their record to 19-4.

A feisty cat fight is on tap when the River Ridge Wildcats take on the Eastland Cougars at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Eastland knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past four contests -- so hopefully River Ridge likes a good challenge. Dakota has already played their next game (against Orangeville), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.