Preview: Union Spartans vs. East Columbus Gators
Union has been on the road for two straight, but on Tuesday they'll finally head home. They will take on the East Columbus Gators at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Thursday, Union strolled past Jones with points to spare, taking the game 51-32. Given Union's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 123rd, while Jones is ranked 419th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Ariyona Spearman was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 29 points and 11 rebounds. That makes it six consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of Union's points. Another player making a difference was Centavia McKoy, who scored 10 points along with 8 rebounds and 6 steals.
Meanwhile, East Columbus put another one in the bag on Wednesday to keep their perfect season alive. They walked away with a 53-44 win over South Brunswick.
Malia J. graham and Malayah Hines were among the main playmakers for East Columbus as the former scored 15 points along with 5 rebounds and the latter scored 20 points along with 8 steals and 5 assists. The game was J. graham's fifth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Shamiah Johnson, who scored 4 points.
Union's win bumped their record up to 5-1. As for East Columbus, they have yet to lose a game at home this season, leaving them with a 5-0 record.
Keep an eye on the arc in Tuesday's matchup: Union have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 8 threes per game. It's a different story for East Columbus, though, as they've been averaging only 3 per game. Given Union's sizeable advantage in that area, East Columbus will need to find a way to close that gap. Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
Union ended up a good deal behind East Columbus in their previous matchup back in November, losing 52-33. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of East Columbus' J. graham, who scored 18 points along with 7 rebounds. Now that Union knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
