The Blytheville Chickasaws return home Tuesday night to host perennial Missouri power Sikeston.
The junior varsity game tips off at 6 p.m., followed by the varsity game. Playing in its first game of the season, Sikeston is coming off a 28-3 campaign that included a fourth place finish in the state tournament.
The Class 4A No. 2 Bulldogs return starters Fred Thatch and Kevin Jones.
The 6-foot-3 Thatch was last year's Class 4 Player of the Year, after averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and 2.5 steals.
He has scholarship offers from Missouri and Tulsa, according to the Sikeston Standard-Democrat.
"He's become a much better shooter," Sikeston head coach Gregg Holifield told the newspaper recently. "He's just becoming a junior and I think people lose sight of that. He's just about better in every area, especially as a shooter, ball handler and, really, just about everything else." Jones, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, averaged nine points, four assists and three rebounds as a freshman during the 2015-16 season.
"Jones as a freshman did a great job as well," Holifield told the Standard-Democrat. "He just keeps getting better and better." The Bulldogs also have size inside with 6-foot-6 sophomore Trey Jenkins.
"So many times we're undersized going against teams we have to beat and that's something we'll need to have. He'll give us something we haven't had in a while," Holifield said.
"We are young in a lot of spots and at the varsity level we have a lot of inexperience," Holifield continued. "Losing those seniors are big, but I feel like we have lots of guys that are capable of filling in and doing good things."