Basketball Game Preview: M.L. King Lions vs. Midtown Knights

The M.L. King Lions will face off against the Midtown Knights at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

M.L. King is headed into the contest having just posted their biggest win since January 7th on Saturday. They blew past Forest Park 31-8. The Lions haven't had any issues with the Panthers recently, as the game was their third consecutive victory against them.

Jamoney Hayes

Blocked Shots

02/08/25 vs Forest Park	3
02/04/25 @ Forest Park	7
01/31/25 vs Mays	3
01/28/25 @ Drew	5

M.L. King can attribute much of their success to Jamoney Hayes, who posted five points in addition to 11 boards and three steals, and Zya Taylor, who had ten points and three steals. Hayes has been hot recently, having also posted three or more blocks the last four times she's played. Another player making a difference was Ka'Leah Gibson, who earned seven rebounds.

Meanwhile, Midtown had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 13 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Tuesday. They came out on top against Drew by a score of 61-48. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 43rd, while Drew are ranked 222nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Midtown's win came from a few key players M.L. King will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Hailey Wortmann, who scored 18 points and eight boards. Cate Barton was another key player, putting up five points along with 17 rebounds and seven assists.

Midtown smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 24 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least ten offensive boards in four consecutive games.

Midtown pushed their record up to 21-4 with the win, which was their fifth straight on the road. Those victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 28.4 points over those games. As for M.L. King, their victory bumped their record up to 7-20.

M.L. King was dealt a bruising 74-11 loss at the hands of Midtown in their previous matchup back in January. Can M.L. King avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.