Basketball Game Preview: Midlothian Panthers vs. Red Oak Hawks

Midlothian and Red Oak are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2018, but not for long. The Midlothian Panthers will head out on the road to square off against the Red Oak Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be battling to keep a six-game winning streak alive.

It was a proper cat-fight when Midlothian faced off against Ennis on Tuesday. Midlothian snuck past Ennis with a 49-43 victory. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 124th, while the Lions are ranked 660th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Red Oak). They breezed by Kaufman to the tune of 88-45 on Tuesday. The Hawks have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 11 matchups by 20 points or more this season.

Red Oak has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 18-8 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 32 points. As for Midlothian, they pushed their record up to 19-8 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road.

Midlothian didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Red Oak when the teams last played back in December of 2024, but they still walked away with a 52-48 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Midlothian since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.