Preview: Gibbs Gladiators vs. Jefferson Dragons
The Gibbs Gladiators will look to defend their home court on Thursday against the Jefferson Dragons at 7:00 p.m. One thing working in Gibbs' favor is that they have posted big point totals in their last 12 contests.
Gibbs fought the good fight in their overtime contest against Bartow on Saturday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Yellow Jackets by a score of 62-59. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Friday (56), Gibbs still had to take the loss.
Despite their defeat, Gibbs saw several players rise to the challenge and make noteworthy plays. Jacob Daniels, who dropped a double-double on 23 points and 11 rebounds, was perhaps the best of all. It was the first time this season that Daniels pulled down eight or more rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Mathis Roberts, who scored 14 points along with two steals.
Even though they lost, Gibbs smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Bartow only pulled down eight offensive rebounds.
Meanwhile, with a playoff game on the line, Jefferson rose to the challenge on Tuesday. They managed a 56-50 win over the Storm.
Jefferson had a senior duo take command as Lazzaro Ford scored 23 points and Emanuel Robinson scored 20 points. That makes it five consecutive games in which Ford has scored at least a third of Jefferson's points.
Gibbs' defeat ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 20-5. As for Jefferson, their win bumped their record up to 10-16.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Gibbs hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 67.1 points per game. However, it's not like Jefferson struggles in that department as they've been averaging 57.3 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more basketball content.
