North Park and Hayden are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2017, but not for long. A feisty cat fight is on tap when the North Park Wildcats duke it out with the Hayden Tigers at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. North Park has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the game with ten straight losses, while Hayden will come in with four straight wins.
North Park came up into this matchup off a tough 50-point defeat last Saturday. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Vail Mountain by a score of 32-30 on Saturday.
| 02/01/25 vs Vail Mountain | 7 |
| 12/09/23 vs Dolores | 4 |
| 12/12/23 @ Encampment | 3 |
| 01/19/24 vs West Grand | 3 |
| 02/09/24 vs Vail Christian | 3 |
Despite the loss, North Park had strong showings from Paige Solano, who posted seven points in addition to nine boards and three steals, and Micah Wolvington, who earned 12 points along with seven steals and five rebounds. Those seven steals gave Wolvington a new career-high.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Hayden). They blew past Vail Christian 63-33 on Friday. The Tigers pushed the score to 45-24 by the end of the third, a deficit the Saints had little chance of recovering from.
North Park better focus on containing Taryn Schlim and Sydney Wattles as the pair were huge in Hayden's win. Schlim dropped a double-double on 14 points and 11 boards, while Wattles went 6 of 12 on her way to 13 points in addition to eight rebounds and five steals. Wattles is trending in the right direction considering she's improved her point production for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Alexis Vreeman, who went 5 for 10 en route to 10 points along with five boards and three steals.
Hayden smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 28 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive rebounds in 13 consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Hayden pushed their record up to 7-5 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.7 points per game. As for North Park, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-11.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: North Park has been crashing the rebounds this season, having averaged 27.5 boards per game. However, it's not like Hayden struggles in that department as they've been averaging 40 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
North Park came up short against Hayden in their previous matchup back in January, falling 46-33. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Schlim, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 17 boards. Now that North Park knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
