The Riverside Beavers will take on the Mayfield Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Tuesday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Riverside beat South 65-61. Given the Beavers' advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 216th, while the Rebels are ranked 558th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Drew Brown was his usual excellent self, going 7 of 10 en route to 16 points in addition to six rebounds and five assists. Another player making a difference was Kyle Harden, who went 7 for 12 on his way to 16 points.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Mayfield). They simply couldn't be stopped on Tuesday as they easily beat North 86-56. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest victory the Wildcats have posted against the Rangers since December 10, 2021.
Mayfield's win came from a few key players Riverside will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Angelo Newman, who went 8 of 13 en route to 20 points. His evening made it three games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. Shane Jones was another key player, going 6 for 10 on his way to 21 points.
They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Mayfield was working as a unit and finished the game with 24 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Riverside is on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 11 games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.3 points per game. As for Mayfield, their win bumped their record up to 5-10.
Riverside didn't have too much breathing room in their match against Mayfield in their previous matchup on January 7th, but they still walked away with a 70-66 victory. Will Riverside repeat their success, or does Mayfield have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
