Basketball Recap: Silsbee Takes Down Center in a Playoff Battle

With a playoff win on the line, Silsbee rose to the challenge on Monday. They were the clear victor by a 70-46 margin over the Center Roughriders. The Tigers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 13 contests by 21 points or more this season.

Payton Jones

Points

02/17/25 vs Center	15
02/11/25 @ Vidor	16
02/07/25 vs West Orange-Stark	33
02/04/25 @ Little Cypress-Mauriceville	24
01/31/25 vs Bridge City	25
+ 13 more games

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Silsbee to victory, but perhaps none more so than Payton Jones, who almost dropped a double-double with 15 points and nine assists. Jones' evening made it 18 games in a row in which he has scored at least 15 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Quinton Shoulders, who went 5-for-9 en route to 17 points.

Jones wasn't the only one working in the assist department: Silsbee was working as a unit and finished the game with 20 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Center only racked up six assists.

Center's loss came despite a true team effort with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Tim Johnson, who dropped a double-double with 16 points and ten boards. Johnson has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last ten times he's played. Another player making a difference was JaKevin(Tiki) Robinson, who went 5-for-6 to rack up 10 points.

Silsbee is on a roll lately: they've won 15 of their last 19 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 21-13 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 72.8 points over those games. As for Center, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 17-10.

Looking ahead, a feisty cat fight will be fought as the Tigers duke it out with the Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Wheatley comes in on nine and Silsbee on 13. Center does not have any more games scheduled as of now.