Preview: Chilton County Tigers vs. Pelham Panthers
Chilton County is 0-8 against Pelham since December of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Chilton County Tigers will take on the Pelham Panthers at 12:00 p.m. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
With a playoff game on the line, Chilton County rose to the challenge on Friday. They walked away with a 64-53 victory over the Golden Gophers. The win made it back-to-back wins for Chilton County.
Chilton County's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Iasia Anderson led the charge by dropping a double-double on 17 points and ten assists. Anderson is crushing the steal category: she's posted at least three every time she's taken the court this season. Ishunti Brown was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Pelham entered their tilt with Northridge with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. Pelham simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Northridge 54-27 at home. Pelham pushed the score to 48-23 by the end of the third, a deficit Northridge had little chance of recovering from.
Pelham relied on the efforts of Karma Wynn, who scored 12 points along with five assists and two steals, and Tee King, who scored 19 points along with five rebounds and two steals. That makes it seven consecutive games in which King has scored at least a third of Pelham's points. Another player making a difference was Shea Gallagher, who scored six points along with ten rebounds.
Chilton County has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 12 of their last 14 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 21-10 record this season. As for Pelham, their victory bumped their record up to 20-10.
Thursday's matchup will pit two of the most dominant guards against one another: Anderson and King. Anderson has been dynamite this season: she has averaged 14.6 points, 9.2 steals, and 9 assists. For her part, King has averaged 18.9 points, 2.6 steals, and 2.5 assists.
Chilton County suffered a grim 50-25 defeat to Pelham when the teams last played back in January of 2022. Can Chilton County avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
