Preview: Manchester Greyhounds vs. Fayetteville-Perry Rockets
Manchester is 2-8 against Fayetteville-Perry since February of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Manchester Greyhounds will look to defend their home court against the Fayetteville-Perry Rockets at 7:30 p.m. Manchester is out to stop a five-game streak of losses at home.
Manchester scored the most points they've had all season to find success on Monday. They were the clear victor by a 50-26 margin over Clay. The win was just what Manchester needed coming off of a 61-26 defeat in their prior contest.
Meanwhile, Fayetteville-Perry beat Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington 52-40 on Thursday. Given Fayetteville-Perry's advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 245th, while Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington is ranked 525th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Ryley Kleemeyer, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 16 rebounds. Another player making a difference was Lilly Carlier, who scored six points along with five assists and two steals.
Manchester's win ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 4-10. As for Fayetteville-Perry, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 7-5 record this season.
Manchester took a serious blow against Fayetteville-Perry when the teams last played back in December of 2023, falling 63-23. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Carlier, who scored 27 points along with seven rebounds. Now that Manchester knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
