The Capital Cougars will head out on the road to challenge the Nitro Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Capital has struggled recently with 32 losses in a row, while Nitro will arrive with six straight wins.
It's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 82-23, which was the final score in Capital's tilt against Princeton on Monday. While losing is never fun, Capital can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' West Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 100th, while Princeton is ranked 25th).
Meanwhile, Nitro put the finishing touches on their eighth blowout victory of the season on Wednesday. They blew past Hoover 60-40. Nitro pushed the score to 46-25 by the end of the third, a deficit Hoover cut but never quite recovered from.
Natalie Smith was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 20 points and ten rebounds. Another player making a difference was Ava Edwards, who scored 12 points along with five assists.
Capital dropped their record down to 0-11 with that loss, which was their 17th straight on the road dating back to last season. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 28.9 points per game. As for Nitro, they are on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 16-3 record this season.
Capital was taken down by Nitro 61-25 in their previous matchup back in December of 2022. Thankfully for Capital, Taylor Maddox (who dropped a double-double on 23 points and 12 steals) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
