Basketball Game Preview: Mineral Ridge Rams vs. Springfield Tigers

Mineral Ridge is on a six-game streak of home wins, while Springfield is on a four-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Mineral Ridge Rams will host the Springfield Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Last Thursday, Mineral Ridge was fully in charge, breezing past Jackson-Milton 60-27. The matchup was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 44-15.

Sullivan Sandy and Lily Merolillo were among the main playmakers for Mineral Ridge as the former went 7 of 13 en route to 15 points along with five assists and five steals and the latter posted 16 points in addition to seven boards and three steals. Merolillo is on a roll when it comes to steals, as she's now grabbed two or more in the last seven games she's played. Another player making a difference was Ava Hulett, who had eight points and eight rebounds.

Mineral Ridge smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in nine consecutive games.

Meanwhile, Springfield blew past McKinley, posting a 50-13 win. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 314th, while the Trojans are ranked 749th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.

Mineral Ridge is also on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-4 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 31.2 points. As for Springfield, their victory bumped their record up to 13-7.

Mineral Ridge didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Springfield in their previous matchup back in January, but they still walked away with a 65-60 win. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Springfield's Jameka Brungard, who dropped a double-double on 27 points and 17 boards. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Mineral Ridge still be able to contain Brungard? There's only one way to find out.