Basketball Game Preview: Buna Cougars vs. Kountze Lions

Having just played yesterday, the Buna Cougars will get right back to it and host the Kountze Lions at 5:45 p.m. on Friday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Buna is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took their contest on Thursday with ease, bagging an 82-14 win over Anahuac. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 46-7.

Brynn Branch had a dynamite game for Buna, going 6 of 10 from beyond the arc en route to 23 points and four steals. That's the most points Branch has posted since back in November of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Raylee Harding, who posted eight points along with eight rebounds and five steals.

Buna was working as a unit and finished the game with 24 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, Kountze came tearing into Monday's game with four straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 29.5 points) and they left with even more momentum. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat the Hornets 85-28. Given the Lions' advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 164th, while the Hornets are ranked 1187th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Kountze pushed their record up to 17-3 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 74.7 points per game. As for Buna, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 19-12.

Buna took a serious blow against Kountze in their previous matchup back in December of 2024, falling 67-25. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point Buna was down 36-14.