Basketball Game Preview: Rickards Raiders vs. Raines Vikings

The Rickards Raiders and the Raines Vikings will face off at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday without much rest having both just played. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Rickards has three straight wins, Raines has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

On Friday, Rickards beat Lincoln 61-48.

Meanwhile, Raines came up short against Suncoast on Friday and fell 62-49. While losing is never fun, the Vikings can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 280th, while the Chargers are ranked 135th).

Rickards pushed their record up to 12-8 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.7 points per game. As for Raines, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-11.

Rickards beat Raines 53-44 when the teams last played back in November of 2023. Will Rickards repeat their success, or does Raines have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.