The Pine-Richland Rams will finish 2023 at home by hosting the McKeesport Tigers at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Pine-Richland is still on the hunt for that elusive first 'W'.
Last Thursday, Pine-Richland came up short against Trinity and fell 59-46. While losing is never fun, Pine-Richland can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 436th, while Trinity is ranked 104th).
Despite the defeat, Pine-Richland got a solid performance out of Madison Zavasky, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 rebounds. Zavasky scored a full 45.7% of Pine-Richland's points, the fifth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, after a string of five wins, McKeesport's good fortune finally ran out on Thursday. They were outmatched by Norwin on the road and fell 75-44.
Pine-Richland bumped their record down to 0-5 with that loss, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for McKeesport, their loss dropped their record down to 5-1.
Pine-Richland was able to grind out a solid victory over McKeesport in their previous matchup back in February of 2015, winning 56-43. Will Pine-Richland repeat their success, or does McKeesport have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
