Basketball Preview: Marion-Franklin Red Devils vs. Africentric Early College Nubians
Marion-Franklin has enjoyed a two-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will take on the Africentric Early College Nubians at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Marion-Franklin focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 26 on Tuesday.
Marion-Franklin pushed their score all the way to 65, but even that wasn't enough to win. They ended up on the wrong side of a tough 87-65 walloping at the hands of Walnut Ridge. While losing is never fun, Marion-Franklin can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 488th, while the Scots are ranked 162nd).
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Terry Black, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds and two steals. He is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last eight games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Tito Glass, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Africentric Early College put the finishing touches on their sixth blowout victory of the season on Tuesday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat West 73-32 on the road. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Africentric Early College.
Marion-Franklin's loss dropped their record down to 8-10. As for Africentric Early College, they now have a winning record of 9-8.
Marion-Franklin didn't have too much breathing room in their game against the Nubians when the teams last played back in January, but they still walked away with a 81-75 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Marion-Franklin since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
