The Martins Ferry Purple Riders will take on the Morgan Raiders in a tournament on Saturday. The timing is sure in Martins Ferry's favor as the squad sits on four straight wins at home while Morgan has been banged up by six consecutive losses on the road.
Last Friday, Martins Ferry came up short against Union Local and fell 60-52.
Meanwhile, Morgan was just a bucket shy of victory on Friday and fell 46-45 to New Lexington. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 617th, while the Panthers are ranked 234th).
Martins Ferry will need to focus on slowing down Cole McGill, one of several Morgan players who made an impact when they last played. He went 5-for-10 on his way to 13 points. The dominant performance also gave McGill a new career-high in blocks (two). Another player making a difference was Luke Coleman, who dropped a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Even though they lost, Morgan smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive boards. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their offensive rebound total in three consecutive matchups.
Morgan's loss dropped their record down to 4-18. As for Martins Ferry, they now have a losing record of 10-11.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
