The Newark Memorial Cougars will venture away from home to square off against the Kennedy Titans at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Tuesday, Newark Memorial didn't have too much trouble with Irvington as they won 69-50. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 356th, while the Vikings are ranked 742nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Newark Memorial's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Oliver Chen led the charge by going 7 for 13 on his way to 18 points. Jacob Libiran was another key player, going 7 of 14 en route to 19 points.
Meanwhile, Kennedy was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fourth straight defeat. They were three points away from ending the streak, but they lost a 67-64 heartbreaker at the hands of Washington. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Friday (63), the Titans still had to take the loss.
Newark Memorial is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 7-7 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.0 points per game. As for Kennedy, their loss dropped their record down to 4-10.
Things could have been worse for Newark Memorial, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 72-58 loss to Kennedy in their previous meeting back in January of 2024. Thankfully for Newark Memorial, Will Dorsey (who dropped a double-double on 29 points and 13 boards) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
