Basketball Game Preview: Sickles Gryphons vs. Durant Cougars

The Sickles Gryphons will take on the Durant Cougars at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Sickles will be looking to extend their current five-game winning streak.

Sickles is headed into the match after thoroughly thrashing Spoto: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Sickles blew Spoto out of the water with an 89-12 final score. The Gryphons have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won seven contests by 20 points or more this season.

Kelsey Sharpe and Jadyn Watts were among the main playmakers for Sickles as the former dropped a triple-double on 37 points, ten assists, and 15 steals and the latter went 16 of 23 on her way to 36 points along with six steals and five boards. That makes it seven consecutive games in which Watts has scored at least a third of Sickles' points. Luciana Rojas was another key player, putting up six points and four steals.

Sickles smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive rebounds in four consecutive games.

Meanwhile, Durant lost 61-38 to Armwood on Wednesday.

Sickles is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.6 points per game. As for Durant, their loss dropped their record down to 10-6.

Sickles took a serious blow against Durant when the teams last played back in January of 2023, falling 76-43. Can Sickles avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.