The Harrison Raiders and the McCutcheon Mavericks will compete for holiday cheer at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Harrison is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took their matchup on Saturday with ease, bagging an 86-47 victory over Danville. Given the Raiders' advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked eighth, while the Warriors are ranked 65th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
| 12/14/24 vs Danville | 18 |
| 12/13/24 vs Lafayette Jefferson | 21 |
| 12/07/24 vs McCutcheon | 20 |
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Harrison to victory, but perhaps none more so than Malachi King, who went 8 for 11 on his way to 18 points in addition to five assists and five boards. The game was King's third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Reid Smith, who went 7 of 11 on his way to 16 points.
King wasn't the only one working in the assists department: Harrison was working as a unit and finished the game with 30 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, McCutcheon lost to Kokomo on the road by a 84-67 margin on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Saturday (58), the Mavericks still had to take the loss.
Despite the defeat, McCutcheon saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Brody Baker went 8 of 18 on his way to 22 points. Baker has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Brody Raeke, who went 8 of 13 on his way to 19 points.
Harrison's win was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-1. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 66.4 points per game. As for McCutcheon, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 3-2.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Harrison and McCutcheon are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Harrison hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 63.4 points per game. However, it's not like McCutcheon struggles in that department as they've been averaging 68.4 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Harrison beat McCutcheon 66-58 in their previous matchup last Saturday. Does Harrison have another victory up their sleeve, or will McCutcheon turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
