The Rockledge Raiders will be staying on the road on Thursday to face off against the Northwestern Bulls at 7:00 p.m. on February 15th. Rockledge knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past five matchups -- so hopefully Northwestern likes a good challenge.
With a playoff game on the line, Rockledge rose to the challenge on Saturday. They put the hurt on the Jaguars with a sharp 88-66 victory. Rockledge has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 games by 20 points or more this season.
Ryan Blount was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 42 points and 12 rebounds. That makes it five consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of Rockledge's points. Another player making a difference was Terrence Shannon, who scored 22 points along with six rebounds and three steals.
Meanwhile, Northwestern had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.5 points), and they went ahead and made it five on Saturday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against TERRA Environmental and snuck past 51-49.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Northwestern to victory, but perhaps none more so than Calvin Russell, who scored 14 points along with two steals and two blocks. The team also got some help courtesy of Giovanny Desire, who scored 12 points along with seven rebounds.
Rockledge is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 21-7 record this season. As for Northwestern, their win bumped their record up to 15-7.
Rockledge couldn't quite finish off Northwestern when the teams last played back in February of 2022 and fell 62-60. Can Rockledge avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
