Basketball Game Preview: Pender Patriots vs. East Columbus Gators

Pender is 1-7 against East Columbus since January of 2022 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Pender Patriots will host the East Columbus Gators at 6:00 p.m. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Pender is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They breezed by South Columbus to the tune of 62-30 on Tuesday. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Patriots considering their 23-point performance the matchup before.

Pender found their leader in freshman Maddison Francis, who dropped a double-double on 30 points and 21 rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Francis has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Kimora McAllister, who posted 16 points and three steals.

Meanwhile, East Columbus was fully in charge on Monday, breezing past West Columbus 65-24. The Gators have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won eight contests by 24 points or more this season.

East Columbus pushed their record up to 11-4 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. The wins came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 25.2 points per game. As for Pender, their victory bumped their record up to 3-7.

Pender was dealt a bruising 50-23 defeat at the hands of East Columbus when the teams last played last Monday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of East Columbus' Malia Graham, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 19 boards. Now that Pender knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.