Basketball Game Preview: Cross County Cougars vs. Wood River Eagles

The Cross County Cougars will wrap up 2024 with a road trip to face off against the Wood River Eagles at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Cross County is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 53.6 points per game this season.

Cross County is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Central City just ended the team's five-game winning streak dating back to last season on Saturday. They fell 56-44 to the Bison. The contest marked the Cougars' lowest-scoring game so far this season.

Loss or not, Cross County got some senior leadership from Thatcher Hanson and Wyatt Hengelfelt. Hanson posted nine points along with seven assists and three steals, while Hengelfelt went 7 of 12 en route to 15 points and five rebounds. Hanson has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Sawyer Anderson, who put up seven points.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Wood River). They came out on top against Gibbon by a score of 80-67 on Saturday. The win was familiar territory for the Eagles who have now won three matches in a row.

Wood River's victory was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-1. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 65.0 points per game. As for Cross County, their defeat ended a ten-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 4-1.

Cross County and Wood River were neck-and-neck in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, but Cross County came up empty-handed after a 51-50 loss. Can Cross County avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.