Basketball Game Preview: Kankakee Valley Kougars vs. Hanover Central Wildcats

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Previous Games

02/16/24 - Home	58-54 W
02/18/23 - Away	31-65 L
02/19/22 - Home	55-53 W
12/30/21 - Neutral	55-42 W
03/05/21 - Away	36-58 L
+ 5 more games

Kankakee Valley and Hanover Central are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2018, but not for long. The Kankakee Valley Kougars will square off against the Hanover Central Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Kankakee Valley is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Knox: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Kankakee Valley blew Knox out of the water with a 65-38 final score. The Kougars have beaten the Redskins the last seven times they've met, but they better watch out: this was the closest the Redskins has come to flipping the script.

Kouts typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday Hanover Central proved too difficult a challenge. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past the Mustangs & Fillies 73-70. That's two games straight that the Wildcats have won by exactly three points.

Hanover Central has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 11-10 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.5 points over those games. As for Kankakee Valley, their win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-8.

Kankakee Valley didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Hanover Central when the teams last played back in February of 2024, but they still walked away with a 58-54 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Kankakee Valley since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.