Basketball Game Preview: Western Wildcats vs. Beachside Barracudas

The Western Wildcats will be taking part in a tournament against the Beachside Barracudas at 7:50 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Having struggled with four defeats in a row, Western turned things around against Everglades on Wednesday. They took their matchup with ease, bagging a 69-13 win over the Gators. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 266th, while the Gators are ranked 613th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Beachside had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 16.3 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Wednesday. They blew past the Yellow Jackets 66-26. With that victory, the Barracudas brought their scoring average up to 50.9 points per game.

Western better focus on containing Kendall Kane and Morgan Cremen as the pair were huge in Beachside's win. Kane went 7 for 13 on her way to 18 points in addition to seven assists and seven boards, while Cremen went 7 of 16 on her way to 18 points along with seven rebounds and six steals. Kane's evening made it three games in a row in which she has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Sophia Iskander, who posted ten points and six rebounds.

Beachside smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in three consecutive contests.

Beachside is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 6-3 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.8 points per game. As for Western, the win got them back to even at 5-5.