Basketball Game Preview: Sickles Gryphons vs. East Lake Eagles

The Sickles Gryphons will take on the East Lake Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Sickles is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Wednesday. They blew past Largo, posting a 63-29 victory. Winning may never get old, but the Gryphons sure are getting used to it with their ninth in a row.

Meanwhile, East Lake took their contest on Wednesday with ease, bagging a 74-34 win over Steinbrenner. Given the Eagles' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 119th, while the Warriors are ranked 566th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Sickles better focus on containing Jordan Bryant and Jeremiah Cooper as the pair were huge in East Lake's win. Bryant dropped a double-double on 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Cooper went 6 of 11 from beyond the arc on his way to 18 points in addition to seven boards and six assists. Bryant is also on a roll when it comes to blocks, as he's now posted four or more in the last ten games he's played. Andre Willis was another key player, going 7 for 15 en route to 17 points.

Sickles is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 13 games, which provided a nice bump to their 18-8 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 71.9 points per game. As for East Lake, their victory bumped their record up to 19-7.

Sickles suffered a grim 81-61 defeat to East Lake in their previous matchup back in December of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Bryant, who dropped a double-double on 31 points and 13 rebounds. Now that Sickles knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.