Preview: Jefferson Dragons vs. Gibbs Gladiators
The Jefferson Dragons will head out on the road to face off against the Gibbs Gladiators at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the pair will really light up the scoreboard.
With a playoff game on the line, Jefferson rose to the challenge on Tuesday. They managed a 56-50 victory over the Storm.
Jefferson relied on the efforts of Emanuel Robinson, who scored 20 points, and Lazzaro Ford, who scored 23 points. That makes it five consecutive games in which Ford has scored at least a third of Jefferson's points.
Meanwhile, Gibbs fought the good fight in their overtime matchup against Bartow on Saturday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Yellow Jackets by a score of 62-59. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Friday (56), Gibbs still had to take the loss.
Despite their defeat, Gibbs saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Jacob Daniels, who dropped a double-double on 23 points and 11 rebounds, was perhaps the best of all. It was the first time this season that Daniels pulled down eight or more rebounds. Mathis Roberts was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with two steals.
Even though they lost, Gibbs smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Bartow only pulled down eight offensive rebounds.
Jefferson's win bumped their record up to 10-16. As for Gibbs, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 20-5.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the pair are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Jefferson hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 57.3 points per game. However, it's not like Gibbs struggles in that department as they've been averaging 67.1 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
