Basketball Preview: Hillcrest Christian Cougars vs. Puckett Wolves
The Hillcrest Christian Cougars will head out on the road to square off against the Puckett Wolves at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Hillcrest Christian knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past three matches -- so hopefully Puckett likes a good challenge.
Last Tuesday, Hillcrest Christian was just a bucket shy of victory and fell 68-67 to Hazlehurst. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Thursday (65), the Cougars still had to take the loss.
Despite the defeat, Hillcrest Christian got top-tier performance from Jordan Johnson, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 11 rebounds. The dominant performance also gave Johnson a new career-high in offensive rebounds (eight). Another player making a difference was Darius Barnes, who went 8 for 20 en route to 21 points plus five rebounds.
Even though they lost, Hillcrest Christian smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in three consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, a victory for Puckett just wasn't in the cards on Tuesday as the team wasn't able to take the lead at any point. They took a blow against McLaurin, falling 70-39. The Wolves have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from A'Tavion Webb, who earned 15 points. The contest was his third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Marcus Parker, who posted ten points.
Puckett now has a losing record at 1-2. As for Hillcrest Christian, their loss ended a six-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 2-1.
Hillcrest Christian strolled past Puckett when the teams last played back in November of 2019 by a score of 82-63. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Puckett's Kevin Allen, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 12 rebounds. Now that he won't be playing on Thursday, will it be easier for Hillcrest Christian to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
