Basketball Game Preview: New Covenant Gryphons vs. North Cross Raiders

New Covenant is 8-2 against North Cross since February of 2016 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. After both having extra time off, both will dust off their jerseys to take on one another at 6:00 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

New Covenant is likely headed into the game with a focus on the second half, which is when things went downhill against Grace Christian two weeks ago. New Covenant fell just short of Grace Christian by a score of 39-37.

New Covenant's defeat came about despite a quality game from Melia Leitner, who almost dropped a double-double on ten points and nine boards. The dominant performance gave Leitner a new career-high in points. Alicia Kenny was another key player, putting up six points and nine rebounds.

Even though they lost, New Covenant smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Grace Christian only pulled down four offensive boards.

Meanwhile, North Cross was not able to break out of their rough patch back in December of 2024 as the team picked up their sixth straight loss. They took a blow against Blue Ridge Christian, falling 47-20. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 350th, while the Bears are ranked 76th).

New Covenant's defeat dropped their record down to 6-4. As for North Cross, their loss dropped their record down to 1-8.

New Covenant beat North Cross 38-27 when the teams last played back in January of 2024. Will New Covenant repeat their success, or does North Cross have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.