Basketball Preview: North Star Cougars vs. Rockwood Rockets
North Star is 10-0 against the Rockets since March of 2018, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The North Star Cougars will head out on the road to challenge the Rockwood Rockets at 6:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (North Star has four straight wins, the Rockets have three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
North Star stacked a seventh blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Friday. They breezed by Meyersdale on the road to the tune of 77-39. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 47-24.
North Star relied on the efforts of CJ Biery, who went 6 for 9 from beyond the arc en route to 18 points and 3 assists, and Ethan Smith, who almost dropped a double-double on 16 points and nine rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Biery has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Brady Weimer, who scored 14 points.
Meanwhile, Rockwood struggled with assists on Friday (the Mountaineers had eight more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Rockwood had to suffer through a rough 74-44 loss at the hands of the Mountaineers. While losing is never fun, Rockwood can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 744th, while the Mountaineers are ranked 67th).
The losing side was boosted by Zander Ritenour, who scored 24 points along with four steals. He hasn't dropped below three steals for four straight games.
North Star has been performing well recently as they've won ten of their last 13 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. As for Rockwood, they dropped their record down to 1-16 with that defeat, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season.
Keep an eye on the arc in Tuesday's game: North Star have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 41.2% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Rockwood, though, as they've only made 25.4% of their threes this season. Given North Star's sizable advantage in that area, the Rockets will need to find a way to close that gap.
Everything came up roses for North Star against the Rockets in their previous matchup back in January as the team secured a 76-32 victory. With North Star ahead 53-12 at the half, the contest was all but over already.
