Richland is 6-1 against Denton since January of 2021, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Richland Royals will head out on the road to face off against the Denton Broncos at 7:00 p.m. The pair have had a bumpy ride up to this point with 11 consecutive losses for Richland and six for Denton.
Richland pushed their score all the way to 57 on Tuesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a hard 71-57 fall against Grapevine.
Meanwhile, Denton came up short against Argyle on Tuesday and fell 55-46. While losing is never fun, Denton can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 451st, while Argyle is ranked 38th).
Despite the defeat, Denton saw an underclassman step up: Ethan Sheats scored 18 points. That was a full 39.1% of Denton's points, marking the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Chase Thomas was another key contributor, scoring 13 points.
Richland's loss was their fifth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 4-23. As for Denton, they have not been sharp recently as the team's lost eight of their last nine contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 12-22 record this season.
Richland suffered a grim 63-38 defeat to Denton in their previous matchup back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Thomas, who almost dropped a double-double on 17 points and nine rebounds. Now that Richland knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
