Basketball Preview: King & Queen Central Royal Tigers vs. Essex Trojans
The King & Queen Central Royal Tigers will head out on the road to take on the Essex Trojans at 6:15 p.m. on Monday. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
King & Queen Central proved they can win big on Wednesday (they won by 20) but on Friday they proved they can win the close ones too. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past Carver College and Career Academy 2-0. The victory made it back-to-back wins for King & Queen Central.
Meanwhile, Essex put another one in the bag on Thursday to keep their perfect season alive. They strolled past Colonial Beach with points to spare, taking the game 62-44. The high flying offensive effort was a huge turnaround for Essex considering their one-point performance the contest before.
Essex's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Morgan Self, who almost dropped a triple-double on 13 points, nine rebounds, and 14 blocks, and Jaylah Mercer, who almost dropped a double-double on 33 points and nine steals. Mercer is crushing the steal category: she's posted at least two every time she's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Amani Brown, who scored six points along with six rebounds.
King & Queen Central's win bumped their record up to 9-7. As for Essex, they pushed their record up to 15-0 with that win, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season.
King & Queen Central was taken down by the Trojans 72-32 in their previous matchup back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Mercer, who dropped a double-double on 26 points and 15 rebounds. Now that King & Queen Central knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
