Basketball Game Preview: Long Reach Lightning vs. Atholton Raiders

vs

Previous Games

02/14/25 - Away	63-60 W
01/31/25 - Home	54-59 L
02/14/24 - Home	76-66 W
01/05/24 - Away	64-54 W
02/28/23 - Neutral	69-52 W
+ 5 more games

Long Reach and Atholton are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2020, but not for long. The Long Reach Lightning will face off against the Atholton Raiders on Tuesday. Long Reach has given up an average of 66.6 points per game this season, so hopefully the team got some defensive drills in this week.

Long Reach is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past River Hill 69-67.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Atholton). They blew past Reservoir 76-28 on Monday. The Raiders pushed the score to 59-27 by the end of the third, a deficit the 'Gators had no chance of recovering from.

Long Reach better keep an eye on Cameron Lyons. He was instrumental in Atholton's win, going 6-for-11 en route to 27 points and four steals. Lyons continues to improve, besting his previous point total in each of the last four games he's played. Another player making a difference was Mike Davis, who shot 63% from the field to rack up 13 points.

Atholton smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive rebounds in three consecutive matches.

Atholton's win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 12-9. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.7 points over those games. As for Long Reach, their record is now 6-16.

Long Reach came out on top in a nail-biter against Atholton in their previous matchup back in February, sneaking past 63-60. Does Long Reach have another victory up their sleeve, or will Atholton turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.