Two dominant guards in Ally Weathers and Shelby Higgins are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Loretto Mustangs will head out on the road to take on the Richland Raiders at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
On Tuesday, Loretto was fully in charge, breezing past Mt. Pleasant 72-26 on the road. Loretto pushed the score to 67-19 by the end of the third, a deficit Mt. Pleasant cut but never quite recovered from.
Loretto relied on the efforts of Libby Sanders, who scored 16 points, and Weathers, who scored 19 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Sanders has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Ally Augustin, who scored nine points.
Meanwhile, Richland entered their tilt with Culleoka with five consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with six. Richland simply couldn't be stopped on Tuesday as they easily beat Culleoka 55-20 at home. Given Richland's advantage in MaxPreps' Tennessee basketball rankings (they are ranked 79th, while Culleoka is ranked 274th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
The win makes it two in a row for Loretto and bumps their season record up to 21-2. As for Richland, they are on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 18-5 record this season.
Everything went Loretto's way against Richland in their previous meeting back in December of 2023 as Loretto made off with a 66-43 victory. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Richland's Bailey Blair, who scored 16 points. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Loretto still be able to contain Blair? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.