Basketball Recap: Harlem Comes Up Short

Harlem lost against Westside back in December of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Harlem Bulldogs fell 59-52 to the Westside Patriots. While losing is never fun, the Bulldogs can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 277th, while the Patriots are ranked 107th).

Despite the loss, Harlem still got an impressive performance from Jayden Futrell, who posted 11 points and five boards. Another player making a difference was Horatio Shaffer III, who scored nine points.

Leading Westside to victory were Dontrell Jackson and Jarious Adkinson. Jackson went 6 of 12 en route to 16 points along with five assists and three steals, while Adkinson earned nine points in addition to five rebounds and three steals. The match was Jackson's fifth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jayden Adkinson, who had ten points along with seven boards and three steals.

This is the second loss in a row for Harlem and nudges their season record down to 8-9. As for Westside, they are on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a massive bump to their 13-7 record this season.

Harlem will get a bit of extra time to process the defeat as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Howard at 7:30 p.m. on January 27th. As for Westside, they will host Cross Creek at 7:00 p.m. on January 24th. Westside is on a 14-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), Cross Creek a six-game streak of away wins -- so someone will have to leave a streak behind on the court.