The Hickory Ridge Ragin' Bulls waltzed into Friday's game with four straight wins but they left with five. They walked away with a 55-47 victory over Porter Ridge. That's two games straight that Hickory Ridge has won by exactly eight points.
Hickory Ridge's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Amya Leathers led the charge by scoring 16 points along with six assists and five rebounds. The game was Leathers' third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Sheree Gidney, who scored 16 points along with seven rebounds.
Despite the loss, Porter Ridge saw an underclassman step up: Ashanti Taylor scored 19 points along with nine rebounds. The contest was Taylor's third in a row with at least ten points. Sidney Blackwell was another key contributor, scoring 13 points.
Hickory Ridge pushed their record up to 5-1 with that victory, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 67.6 points per game. As for Porter Ridge, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-4.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Hickory Ridge will take on Sun Valley at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Sun Valley will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps North Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 227th, while Hickory Ridge is ranked 53rd). As for Porter Ridge, they will head out on the road to face off against Forest Hills at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Forest Hills focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 23 on Friday.
