Preview: John Marshall Justices vs. Alexandria City Titans
Two dominant guards in Damon Thompson Jr and Kye Robinson are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The John Marshall Justices will face off against the Alexandria City Titans at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
John Marshall and St. Christopher's (ranked 36 and 75 in the MaxPreps national rankings respectively) squared off in a high-profile game. John Marshall fell just short of St. Christopher's by a score of 53-50. The result shouldn't come as a shock considering that's the fewest points John Marshall has scored all season.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Thompson Jr, who scored 20 points. Another player making a difference was Aiden Argabright, who scored 12 points.
Meanwhile, Alexandria City waltzed into their matchup on Thursday with eight straight wins but they left with nine. They managed a 59-55 win over South County. Given Alexandria City's advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 13th, while South County is ranked 75th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Robinson and Darius Bivins were among the main playmakers for Alexandria City as the former scored 20 points along with six rebounds and three steals and the latter scored 24 points along with four steals. Bivins is absolutely dominating the steal category: he's posted at least two every time he's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Tarik Sesay, who scored seven points along with two steals.
John Marshall's defeat dropped their record down to 9-3. As for Alexandria City, they pushed their record up to 10-2 with that victory, which was their sixth straight at home.
Keep an eye on the arc in Saturday's match: John Marshall have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 8.7 threes per game. It's a different story for Alexandria City, though, as they've been averaging only 4.5 threes per game. Given John Marshall's sizeable advantage in that area, Alexandria City will need to find a way to close that gap. Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other basketball content.
