Preview: Vestavia Hills Rebels vs. Baker Hornets
The Vestavia Hills Rebels and the Baker Hornets will face off at 4:30 p.m. on December 28th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the pair posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Vestavia Hills is ranked highly in their home state, and on Thursday they took on another highly ranked team in the form of Henderson County. Vestavia Hills was the clear victor by a 75-50 margin over Henderson County. The result was nothing new for Vestavia Hills, who have now won eight contests by 24 points or more so far this season.
Meanwhile, Baker blew past Scottsboro, posting a 82-53 win at home. Given Baker's advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 17th, while Scottsboro is ranked 89th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Baker to victory, but perhaps none more so than Dashawn Thomas, who scored 17 points along with five rebounds. The matchup was Thomas' fifth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Derrick Florence lll, who scored 15 points.
The win was the fifth in a row for Vestavia Hills, bringing their record for this year to 11-3. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 67.8 points per game. As for Baker, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last nine matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-4 record this season.
Vestavia Hills strolled past Baker in their previous matchup back in November of 2018 by a score of 66-47. The rematch might be a little tougher for Vestavia Hills since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
