Basketball Game Preview: Madison County Mountaineers vs. Luray Bulldogs

After both having extra time off, the Madison County Mountaineers and the Luray Bulldogs will shake off the cobwebs and face off against one another at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Last Friday, Madison County was able to grind out a solid win over Page County, taking the game 56-45.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Luray). They blew past Lancaster 103-52 last Saturday. Given the Bulldogs' advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 132nd, while the Red Devils are ranked 272nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Luray's win came from a few key players Madison County will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Blake Jenkins, who went 10 of 16 on his way to 33 points and five assists. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 17.5 points per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Connor Hilliard, who went 6 of 7 on his way to 19 points in addition to five rebounds and five steals.

Luray was working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in January.

Luray pushed their record up to 4-2 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 72.7 points per game. As for Madison County, their win ended a five-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 2-7.

Madison County couldn't quite finish off Luray in their previous meeting back in February and fell 51-48. Can Madison County avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.