Preview: Taft Senators vs. Archbishop McNicholas Rockets
The Taft Senators's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Archbishop McNicholas Rockets at 12:00 p.m. on March 2nd. Taft has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.
Even though Reading scored an imposing 59 points on Tuesday, Taft still came out on top. Taft breezed by Reading on the road to the tune of 86-59. Given Taft's advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 95th, while Reading is ranked 510th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Jordyn Buchanan, who scored 24 points along with six assists and six rebounds. He hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. Another player making a difference was Jay'Quan Bostic, who scored 15 points along with six rebounds and three steals.
Batavia typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday Archbishop McNicholas proved too difficult a challenge. They claimed a resounding 73-39 win over the Bulldogs on the road. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point Archbishop McNicholas had established a 21 point advantage.
Andrew Ehlers was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 27 points and ten rebounds. He has been hot recently, having posted 18 or more points the last five times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Joey Thomas, who scored nine points along with eight rebounds and two steals.
Taft is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten matches, which provided a massive bump to their 16-8 record this season. As for Archbishop McNicholas, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 13-11.
Saturday's game is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Taft have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 32.3 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Archbishop McNicholas struggles in that department as they've been averaging 27 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Taft beat Archbishop McNicholas 39-26 when the teams last played back in February of 2023. Will Taft repeat their success, or does Archbishop McNicholas have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
