Basketball Game Preview: Cuba/Spoon River Valley Wildcats vs. Delavan Panthers

Cuba/Spoon River Valley hasn't had much luck against Delavan recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. A feisty cat fight will be fought as the Wildcats duke it out with the Panthers at 6:00 p.m. Cuba/Spoon River Valley is coming into the contest hot, having won their last three games.

Last Tuesday, Cuba/Spoon River Valley narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Bushnell-Prairie City 40-38.

Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 79-52, which was the final score in Delavan's tilt against Limestone on Saturday. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 538th, while the Rockets are ranked 217th).

Defeat or not, Delavan got some senior leadership from Bryson Horning and Kelton Nafzinger. Horning went 13-for-19 to rack up 30 points, while Nafzinger almost dropped a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Horning has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Grady Burrell, who posted seven points.

This is the second loss in a row for Delavan and nudges their season record down to 11-18. As for Cuba/Spoon River Valley, the win got them back to even at 14-14.

Cuba/Spoon River Valley came up short against Delavan in their previous matchup back in January, falling 47-40. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Horning, who went 10-for-17 en route to 25 points in addition to five assists and five boards. Now that Cuba/Spoon River Valley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.