Basketball Game Preview: Gold Beach Panthers vs. Oakland Oakers

The Gold Beach Panthers will take on the Oakland Oakers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.

Gold Beach is headed into Friday's match hungry for a win as their strong season has now been derailed by two straight defeats. They were six points away from ending the streak, but they lost a 47-41 heartbreaker at the hands of Reedsport.

Meanwhile, Oakland had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 28 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. They blew past the Cougars, posting a 79-39 win. Given the Oakers' advantage in MaxPreps' Oregon basketball rankings (they are ranked 35th, while the Cougars are ranked 168th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Oakland is also on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 12 games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-3 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 67.3 points per game. As for Gold Beach, their loss ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 9-5.

Gold Beach came up short against Oakland in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, falling 63-50. Can Gold Beach avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.