The Oak Grove Grizzlies will look to defend their home court on Thursday against the Eastern Randolph Wildcats at 6:00 p.m. Hopefully Oak Grove focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 16 on Tuesday.
Oak Grove entered their tilt with Randleman with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. Oak Grove walked away with a 43-33 victory over Randleman. Given Oak Grove's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 110th, while Randleman is ranked 287th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Trista Charles, who scored 16 points along with nine rebounds. That makes it eight consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of Oak Grove's points. Another player making a difference was Emma Hadley, who scored two points along with five rebounds and three steals.
Meanwhile, Eastern Randolph's 19-8 record from last season is now well into the rear view mirror after another tough outing. They suffered a tough 55-33 loss at the hands of Williams on Tuesday. Eastern Randolph has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite their loss, Eastern Randolph saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Ziera Watson, who scored 11 points along with five steals, was perhaps the best of all. The game was Watson's fourth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kenly Whitaker, who scored nine points along with five rebounds.
Oak Grove pushed their record up to 7-1 with that win, which was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Eastern Randolph, their loss dropped their record down to 1-4.
Thursday's game is shaping up to be a scrappy game: Oak Grove have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 33.5 rebounds per game. It's a different story for Eastern Randolph, though, as they've been averaging only 32 rebounds per game. Given Oak Grove's sizeable advantage in that area, Eastern Randolph will need to find a way to close that gap.
Everything came up roses for Oak Grove against Eastern Randolph in their previous meeting back in December of 2021 as the team secured a 67-32 win. With Oak Grove ahead 34-14 at the half, the contest was all but over already.
