The Hickory Ridge Ragin' Bulls entered their tilt with the Sun Valley Spartans with five consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with six. Hickory Ridge walked away with a 51-43 victory over Sun Valley on Friday. Given Hickory Ridge's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 30th, while Sun Valley is ranked 252nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Hickory Ridge was led to victory by Ma-kaela Gidney and Amya Leathers. Gidney scored 18 points along with three steals, while Leathers scored 16 points along with six steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Leathers has scored at least 25% of Hickory Ridge's points. Another player making a difference was Sheree Gidney, who scored 11 points along with five rebounds.
Sun Valley lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Tyra Robinson, who scored 18 points. Those 18 points set a new season-high mark for her. Zoe Bradley was another key contributor, scoring two points along with seven rebounds and four steals.
Hickory Ridge's win bumped their record up to 6-1. As for Sun Valley, they have traveled a rocky road recently, as they've lost four of their last five matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-5 record this season.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Hickory Ridge won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Central Cabarrus at 10:00 a.m. on December 16th. Central Cabarrus is coming into the contest hot, having won their last three games. Sun Valley will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Mount Pleasant at 1:30 p.m. on December 27th.
