Basketball Preview: Hamilton County Trojans vs. Branford Buccaneers
After two games on the road, Hamilton County is heading back home. They will take on the Branford Buccaneers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Hamilton County fought the good fight in their overtime contest against the EAGLES on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the EAGLES by a score of 60-58. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Despite the loss, Hamilton County saw an underclassman step up: Tramial Jackson scored 24 points. That was a full 41.4% of Hamilton County's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Aaliyah McFadden, who scored 13 points.
Meanwhile, Branford came up short against the Minutemen on Tuesday and fell 39-29. While losing is never fun, Branford can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 532nd, while the Minutemen are ranked 219th).
Hamilton County has not been sharp recently as the team's lost four of their last five games, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-12 record this season. As for Branford, their loss dropped their record down to 5-12.
Hamilton County strolled past the Buccaneers in their previous meeting back in January by a score of 46-31. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Branford's Brianna Barrs, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and ten rebounds. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Hamilton County still be able to contain Barrs? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
