Basketball Game Preview: Chico Dragons vs. Slidell Greyhounds

Chico is 2-7 against Slidell since November of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Chico Dragons will be playing in front of their home fans against the Slidell Greyhounds at 8:00 p.m.

Chico is headed into Friday's contest looking for a big change in momentum after dropping their eighth straight game on Tuesday. They lost 73-48 to Alvord. The Dragons were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 47-27.

Despite the defeat, Chico got top-tier performance from Jordan Weiland, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 rebounds. That was a full 43.8% of Chico's points, marking the 12th time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Zane Watson, who put up six points and four steals.

Meanwhile, Slidell had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 31.5 points) and they went ahead and made it nine on Tuesday. They enjoyed a cozy 76-61 win over the Pirates. Given the Greyhounds' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 439th, while the Pirates are ranked 1445th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Slidell is also on a roll lately: they've won 13 of their last 14 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 21-7 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 67.9 points per game. As for Chico, their loss dropped their record down to 11-16.

Chico took a serious blow against Slidell when the teams last played back in December of 2024, falling 92-34. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Chico was down 47-20.