Basketball Preview: Zion Chapel Rebels vs. Luverne Tigers
The Zion Chapel Rebels will face off against the Luverne Tigers at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Zion Chapel fought the good fight in their overtime game against the Tigers on Thursday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell to the Tigers 79-73. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Tuesday (57), Zion Chapel still had to take the loss.
Defeat or not, Zion Chapel got some senior leadership from Slade Grantham and Jacob Chestnut. Grantham shot 5-for-9 from deep and almost dropped a double-double on 32 points and nine rebounds, while Chestnut. scored 21 points along with two steals. Grantham is trending in the right direction, as he's improved his point production for three games straight. Mason Stuart was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on ten points and 11 rebounds.
Even though they lost, Zion Chapel smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 21 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Luverne came up short against the Panthers on Tuesday and fell 58-49. While losing is never fun, Luverne can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 206th, while the Panthers are ranked 53rd).
Zion Chapel's defeat dropped their record down to 20-8. As for Luverne, their loss dropped their record down to 12-10.
Zion Chapel beat the Tigers 65-54 when the teams last played back in January. The rematch might be a little tougher for Zion Chapel since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
