Preview: Taft Senators vs. Aiken Falcons
Taft is 8-2 against Aiken since February of 2019, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Taft Senators are on the road again and plays the Aiken Falcons at 7:30 p.m. on February 16th. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Friday, Taft didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Withrow, but they still walked away with a 54-49 win. Given Taft's advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 101st, while Withrow is ranked 368th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Aiken had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 14.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They came out on top against Western Hills by a score of 79-69. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Jaiden Arnold and James Burnett were among the main playmakers for Aiken as the former scored 30 points along with eight assists and four steals and the latter scored 37 points along with eight rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Burnett has scored all season.
Taft's victory was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 13-8. As for Aiken, they are on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 15-5 record this season.
Taft came up short against Aiken in their previous meeting back in January, falling 79-73. Can Taft avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
