Basketball Game Preview: Cheyenne Mountain Red-Tailed Hawks vs. Coronado Cougars

Cheyenne Mountain has gone 4-0 against Coronado recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Cheyenne Mountain Red-Tailed Hawks will be home for the holidays to greet the Coronado Cougars at 4:00 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Cheyenne Mountain is probably headed into the game with a chip on their shoulder considering Falcon just ended the team's five-game winning streak on Thursday. They fell to the Falcons 67-62. The loss was the Red-Tailed Hawks' first of the season.

Despite the loss, Cheyenne Mountain saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Alex Treglia went 12 of 24 on his way to 29 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Treglia has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Dalton Larner, who posted ten points.

Meanwhile, Coronado was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their ninth straight defeat dating back to last season. They were beaten by Lewis-Palmer 73-41. The Cougars were down 62-32 at the end of the third quarter, and things only got worse from there.

Having lost for the first time this season, Cheyenne Mountain fell to 5-1. As for Coronado, their loss dropped their record down to 0-7.

Cheyenne Mountain didn't have too much breathing room in their match against Coronado in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, but they still walked away with a 52-48 win. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Coronado's Realiti Smith, who shot 4-for-6 from beyond the arc and dropped a double-double on 26 points and ten boards. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be easier for Cheyenne Mountain to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.