Preview: Olympic Trojans vs. Myers Park Mustangs
After three games on the road, Olympic is heading back home. They will take on the Myers Park Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Olympic will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps North Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 360th, while Myers Park is ranked second).
Olympic struggled with offensive rebounds on Tuesday (Palisades had 14 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Olympic took a 52-43 hit to the loss column at the hands of Palisades.
Despite the loss, Olympic saw an underclassman step up: CANNON DEBERRY dropped a double-double on 14 points and 15 rebounds. DEBERRY is on a roll when it comes to rebounds, as he's now pulled down ten or more in the last four games he's played. DEANGELO HALL was another key contributor, scoring eight points along with four steals.
Even though they lost, Olympic smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive rebounds. This was only their 12th loss (out of 16 games) when they hit their own glass that hard.
Meanwhile, Myers Park had already won 14 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 27.1 points), and they went ahead and made it 15 on Tuesday. They took down Ardrey Kell 75-60. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Myers Park's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Sir Mohammed, who scored 22 points along with two steals and two blocks. Mohammed hasn't dropped below two steals for four straight games. Another player making a difference was Sadiq White Jr., who scored 17 points along with seven rebounds.
Olympic has not been sharp recently as the team's lost nine of their last ten games, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-17 record this season. As for Myers Park, their win was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 19-2.
Friday's game is shaping up to be a masterclass in shooting: Olympic have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 39.7% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Myers Park struggles in that department as they've made 49.6% of their threes this season. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Olympic suffered a grim 58-35 defeat to Myers Park when the teams last played back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of White Jr., who scored 20 points along with five blocks. Now that Olympic knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
