BLYTHEWOOD – The Bengals will host Ridge View on Friday night in their final home game of the season, with the girls’ game starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, the Bengals travel to RNE to make up Tuesday night’s game at noon.
Boys
The Blythewood Bengals head into Friday night’s matchup with Ridge View seeking revenge in the name of a playoff spot. Back on Jan. 24, the Blazers defeated the Bengals 68-60 in a game that set the Blazers ahead of Blythewood in the region standings. Since that game, Blythewood has lost to Irmo and Spring Valley, but they are playing much better ball in the second half of the conference slate.
The current standing in 4A Region IV has Blythewood in third at 4-4 but Ridge View is hot on their heels at 4-5. A win on Friday night would be a great Valentine’s Day present for the Bengals, as it will solidify their third place spot come playoff time.
Ridge View is also coming off of loses to Irmo and Spring Valley and like Blythewood, have rebounded with wins against Lugoff-Elgin.
Look for Blythewood to press and force the Blazers into bad decisions, but the Blazers will be focused, as another victory over Blythewood would bump them into the third place spot. Kenny McCray will run the point for the Bengals and will look to score as well as get his fellow Bengals involved early.
Girls
The Lady Bengals are in a very similar situation regarding their conference foe, Ridge View. Blythewood is sitting anxiously in third at 4-4, while the Lady Blazers are at 3-5 and hoping for a win this Friday to bump them ahead of Blythewood and into the upper echelon with Irmo and Spring Valley at first and second, respectively.
In the teams’ previous matchup, Ridge View won 49-42. This sets the stage for the Lady Bengals to step up and secure their standing in the playoffs and complete an epic mid-season turnaround that has the team playing much better basketball.
At 10-10 on the year, the Lady Bengals look to finish above the .500 mark. Look for Breelyn Blanding to control the game early from the outside as well as to penetrate the lane and dump the ball off to her all-star center in Brooke Taylor.
While the narrative for both of the Blythewood teams has been similar, they also share in the opportunity to cap off a successful regular season with a victory over Ridge View.
