Basketball Game Preview: Whitney Wildcats vs. Pleasant Grove Eagles

Having just played yesterday, the Whitney Wildcats will jump right back in to play the Pleasant Grove Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Whitney is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Vista del Lago: they outscored them in every quarter. Whitney took down Vista del Lago 54-35 on Friday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Wildcats.

Whitney can attribute much of their success to Tylie Kitchen, who went 7 of 12 en route to 15 points along with eight rebounds and six assists, and Kendall Dykstra, who went 7 of 14 on her way to 17 points along with five boards and three steals. The dominant performance gave Kitchen a new career-high in assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Natalia Benavidez, who posted nine points and six rebounds.

Meanwhile, Pleasant Grove had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 18.8 points) and they went ahead and made it five on Friday. They managed a 43-37 win over the Fighting Zebras. While the Eagles didn't have the best season last year (they finished 12-16), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.

Pleasant Grove has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.4 points per game. As for Whitney, their victory ended a four-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 6-4.

Whitney was able to grind out a solid win over Pleasant Grove in their previous meeting back in December of 2022, winning 45-36. The rematch might be a little tougher for Whitney since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.