Basketball Game Preview: Raymond/South Bend Ravens vs. North Beach Hyaks

The Raymond/South Bend Ravens will venture away from home to take on the North Beach Hyaks at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Raymond/South Bend is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 55.5 points per game this season.

Raymond/South Bend is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Forks just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Friday. They fell to the Spartans 57-53. While losing is never fun, the Ravens can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Washington basketball rankings (they are ranked 271st, while the Spartans are ranked 123rd).

Despite the loss, Raymond/South Bend got top-tier performance from Chris Quintana, who posted 31 points and three steals. The dominant performance gave Quintana a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Tanner Morris, who scored five points and 12 boards.

Meanwhile, North Beach was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their seventh straight defeat. They were dealt a 73-31 loss at the hands of Ilwaco.

Raymond/South Bend will need focus on slowing down JJ Eastman, one of several North Beach players who made an impact when they last played. He had six points along with ten rebounds and three blocks. Eastman has been hot for a while, having posted two or more blocks the last nine times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Sawyer Reither, who put up five points and five boards.

Raymond/South Bend's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 7-10. As for North Beach, their loss dropped their record down to 3-13.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Raymond/South Bend has been crashing the rebounds this season, having averaged 28.6 boards per game. However, it's not like North Beach struggles in that department as they've been averaging 26.9 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.

Everything came up roses for Raymond/South Bend against North Beach when the teams last played on January 9th, as the squad secured a 55-26 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Raymond/South Bend since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.