Basketball Game Preview: Wilmington Hurricane vs. Western Brown Broncos

Wilmington hasn't had much luck against Western Brown recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The Wilmington Hurricane will venture away from home to take on the Western Brown Broncos at 7:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Wilmington is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Clinton-Massie: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Wilmington blew Clinton-Massie out of the water with a 59-28 final score. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Hurricane had established a 30 point advantage.

Meanwhile, Western Brown came tearing into Saturday's game with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 16 points) and they left with even more momentum. They took their contest with ease, bagging a 64-24 win over the Cavaliers. Given the Broncos' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 261st, while the Cavaliers are ranked 685th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Western Brown's win came from a few key players Wilmington will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Peyton Butler, who went 7 of 9 en route to 18 points. She is trending in the right direction considering she's improved her point production for three straight games. Madilyn Ruby was another key player, going 6 for 10 on her way to 15 points in addition to five boards and four steals.

Western Brown was working as a unit and finished the game with 19 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in four consecutive matchups.

Western Brown's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 10-5. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 41 points. As for Wilmington, their record now sits at 5-6.

Wilmington came up short against Western Brown in their previous meeting back in December of 2024, falling 70-60. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Ruby, who went 7 of 11 en route to 17 points along with seven rebounds and five assists. Now that Wilmington knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.