A feisty cat fight will be fought when the Garinger Wildcats duke it out with the Corvian Community Cardinals at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday... Garinger has now lost seven straight, leaving the team hunting for their first win since December 6.
Last Tuesday, Garinger had to suffer through a 78-25 loss at the hands of Charlotte Catholic. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 487th, while the Cougars are ranked 38th).
Despite the defeat, Garinger saw an underclassman step up: freshman Aaron Lawler posted 19 points. That was a full 76% of Garinger's points, marking the fifth time in a row he's had more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Emmanuel Doster, who scored no points in addition to nine boards and four blocks.
Even though they lost, Garinger smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive rebounds in six consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Corvian Community was able to grind out a solid victory over Community School of Davidson on Tuesday, taking the game 83-76.
Corvian Community found their leader in sophomore RJ Moore Jr., who went 7 of 16 on his way to 21 points and eight rebounds. The contest was Moore Jr.'s tenth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Malachi McCutcheon, who went 5 of 9 on his way to 14 points and three blocks.
Corvian Community has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 5-5 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 76.8 points per game. As for Garinger, their loss dropped their record down to 1-11.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Garinger has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 32.8 boards per game. However, it's not like Corvian Community struggles in that department as they've been averaging 32.9 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
