Basketball Game Preview: King Jaguars vs. Phillips Wildcats

King hasn't had much luck against Phillips recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. A feisty cat fight will be fought as the Jaguars challenge the Wildcats at 6:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

King is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They took their match with ease, bagging a 58-24 win over Perspectives-IIT/Joslin. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Jaguars had established a 31 point advantage.

Meanwhile, Phillips was fully in charge on Tuesday, breezing past Dyett 52-10. Given the Wildcats' advantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 46th, while the Eagles are ranked 395th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Phillips' win came from a few key players King will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Akyla Williams, who posted six points. The team also got some help courtesy of Nila Wills, who had seven points.

Phillips is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 22-9 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 56.9 points over those games. As for King, their victory bumped their record up to 11-9.

King took a serious blow against Phillips when the teams last played back in November of 2021, falling 77-5. Can King avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.