Basketball Game Preview: Lakeland Dreadnaughts vs. Gibbs Gladiators

Having just played yesterday, the Lakeland Dreadnaughts will head out on the road to face off against the Gibbs Gladiators at 8:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.

On Thursday, Lakeland beat Lake Wales 61-51. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Dreadnaughts.

Meanwhile, Gibbs waltzed into their match on Tuesday with three straight wins... but they left with four. They strolled past the Warriors with points to spare, taking the game 77-58. Given the Gladiators' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked seventh, while the Warriors are ranked 212th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Gibbs' win came from a few key players Lakeland will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Bobby Crawford, who went 9 of 15 en route to 24 points along with eight boards and four blocks. Those 24 points gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Mike Broxton Jr, who went 8 of 9 on his way to 16 points and seven rebounds.

Gibbs was working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their assist total in three consecutive contests.

Gibbs pushed their record up to 11-4 with the win, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 32.6 points. As for Lakeland, they now have a winning record of 5-4.