Basketball Game Preview: East Columbus Gators vs. West Columbus Vikings

East Columbus has gone 9-1 against West Columbus recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. The East Columbus Gators will welcome the West Columbus Vikings at 5:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (East Columbus has six straight wins, West Columbus has 12 straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

East Columbus is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing West Columbus: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that East Columbus blew West Columbus out of the water with a 63-14 final score. The Gators have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 11 matchups by 23 points or more this season.

Malia Graham

Points

02/14/25 @ West Columbus	28
02/11/25 @ Heide Trask	28
02/06/25 @ Whiteville	16
02/04/25 @ Pender	16
02/03/25 vs West Columbus	16

Malia Graham continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double with 28 points and 14 boards. Her evening made it five games in a row in which she has scored at least 16 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Malayah Hines, who posted 12 points in addition to seven assists and three steals.

East Columbus smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 17 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in 47 consecutive contests dating back to last season.

East Columbus pushed their record up to 15-4 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road. The wins came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 23.2 points over those games. As for West Columbus, their defeat dropped their record down to 2-17.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: East Columbus has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 31.8 rebounds per game. However, it's not like West Columbus struggles in that department as they've been averaging 29.4 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.