Basketball Preview: Montrose Red Hawks vs. Fruita Monument Wildcats
Montrose and the Wildcats are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2019, but not for long. The Montrose Red Hawks will be playing in front of their home fans against the Fruita Monument Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Montrose will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Colorado Rankings (they are ranked 39th, while the Wildcats are ranked fifth).
Montrose fought the good fight in their overtime match against the Tigers on Friday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Tigers by a score of 40-38.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Brekin Hutto, who scored eight points along with seven rebounds and two steals. Another player making a difference was Kaleb Ferguson, who scored 11 points along with two steals.
Montrose struggled to work together and finished the game with only three assists. That's the fewest assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Fruita Monument put another one in the bag on Friday to keep their perfect season alive. They walked away with a 62-49 victory over Grand Junction Central. That's two games straight that Fruita Monument has won by exactly 13 points.
Montrose's defeat dropped their record down to 13-4. As for Fruita Monument, they pushed their record up to 20-0 with that victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season.
Montrose lost to the Wildcats at home by a decisive 49-34 margin when the teams last played two weeks ago. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Fruita Monument's Daniel Thomason, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and ten rebounds. Now that Montrose knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
