Basketball Preview: Ridgeline Riverhawks vs. Bear River Bears
Ridgeline is 8-2 against the Bears since February of 2019, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Wednesday. The Ridgeline Riverhawks will play host again and welcome the Bear River Bears, where tip off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are closely ranked in Utah (Ridgeline is ranked 20th, while the Bears are ranked 26th).
Last Friday, Ridgeline was able to grind out a solid victory over the Wolves, taking the game 49-36. Despite the win, that was the fewest points Ridgeline has scored all season.
Ridgeline had a senior duo take command as Carson Cox dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 rebounds and Khyson Buchmiller scored 12 points along with six rebounds. That makes it four consecutive games in which Cox has scored at least a third of Ridgeline's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Diego Vazquez, who scored five points along with five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Bear River pushed their score all the way to 57 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 61-57 hit to the loss column at the hands of Sky View.
Ridgeline has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. As for Bear River, they dropped their record down to 13-5 with that defeat, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Ridgeline came up short against the Bears when the teams last played back in January, falling 59-52. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Bear River's Bridger Barfuss, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds and two steals. Now that Ridgeline knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
