Basketball Game Preview: Jones Fightin' Tigers vs. Gateway Panthers

The Jones Fightin' Tigers will square off against the Gateway Panthers on Thursday. Jones is coming into the match hot, having won their last four games.

Jones is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They enjoyed a cozy 49-31 win over Pine Ridge. Given the Fightin' Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 140th, while the Panthers are ranked 470th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Gateway's strategy against Seabreeze on Tuesday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Gateway blew Seabreeze out of the water with an 86-19 final score. The Panthers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 17 contests by 20 points or more this season.

Gateway is also on a roll lately: they've won 15 of their last 18 games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-5 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 42.2 points. As for Jones, their victory bumped their record up to 15-6.

Jones ended up a good deal behind Gateway when the teams last played back in February of 2023, losing 51-34. Can Jones avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.