Basketball Preview: Francis Parker Lancers vs. University City Centurions
The Francis Parker Lancers will take on the University City Centurions at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Francis Parker is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They breezed by Tri-City Christian to the tune of 80-45 on Wednesday. The win was a breath of fresh air for the Lancers as it put an end to their three-game losing streak.
Francis Parker's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Tavid Johnson, who dropped a double-double on 41 points and 12 rebounds, and Amon Andrews, who almost dropped a double-double on 25 points and nine rebounds. Johnson's evening made it 14 games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kai Jones, who earned four points plus six rebounds and five assists.
Francis Parker was working as a unit and finished the game with 19 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Tri-City Christian only racked up nine.
Meanwhile, University City fought the good fight in their overtime contest against Mira Mesa on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They took an 84-80 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Marauders. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Saturday (55), the Centurions still had to take the loss.
University City might have lost, but man, Dylan Griffin was a machine: he shot 6-for-11 from beyond the arc and dropped a double-double on 43 points and 13 rebounds. That was a full 53.8% of University City's points, marking the third time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Jabril Abdullah, who went 6 for 10 en route to 17 points plus eight rebounds.
Francis Parker's victory bumped their record up to 2-3. As for University City, their loss ended a ten-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 4-3.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Francis Parker hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 61.6 points per game. However, it's not like University City struggles in that department as they've been averaging 61.8. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Francis Parker won a match that couldn't have been any closer when the teams last played back in December of 2021, slipping by University City 57-56. Will Francis Parker repeat their success, or does University City have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
