On Wednesday, the Nitro Wildcats faced the Ripley Vikings in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Nitro strolled past Ripley with points to spare, taking the game 55-40. For Nitro, this counts as revenge for the 57-38 defeat Ripley walked away with the last time they faced one another back in January of 2023.
Natalie Smith was her usual excellent self, scoring 23 points. The match was her fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Hailey Newsome, who scored six points along with five rebounds.
Nitro's victory bumped their record up to 8-2. As for Ripley, their defeat was their third straight on the road, which bumped their record down to 6-5.
Nitro will be playing in front of their home fans against Philip Barbour at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. As for Ripley, they will face off against Keyser at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Keyser will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps West Virginia Rankings (they are ranked 103rd, while Ripley is ranked 19th).
