Having just played yesterday, the Temple Baptist Academy Royal Crusaders will jump right back in to play the Franklin Road Christian Minutemen at 3:40 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Temple Baptist Academy has six straight victories, Franklin Road Christian has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
Temple Baptist Academy's tournament run continued when they took on Tabernacle Christian on Thursday. Temple Baptist Academy strolled past Tabernacle Christian with points to spare, taking the game 52-34. Given the Royal Crusaders' advantage in MaxPreps' basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 236th in Tennessee, while the Conquerors are ranked 605th in North Carolina), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Temple Baptist Academy found their leader in sophomore Noah Mueller, who went 10 of 19 on his way to 26 points and seven boards. Levi Tomlinson was another key player, going 6 for 14 en route to 15 points and six rebounds.
Meanwhile, Franklin Road Christian lost to South Haven Christian on the road by a 66-50 margin on Tuesday. The Minutemen were down 60-36 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Despite the defeat, Franklin Road Christian saw an underclassman step up: sophomore David Smith went 5 of 6 on his way to 10 points and five boards. The dominant performance gave Smith a new career-high in rebounds. Another player making a difference was Mason Alcorn, who posted ten points and eight boards.
Franklin Road Christian's loss dropped their record down to 13-7. As for Temple Baptist Academy, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 12-3 record this season.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Temple Baptist Academy hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 56.3 points per game. However, it's not like Franklin Road Christian struggles in that department as they've been averaging 61.2 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Temple Baptist Academy took a serious blow against Franklin Road Christian in their previous meeting back in January of 2022, falling 85-37. Can Temple Baptist Academy avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
