Basketball Preview: Elite Eagles vs. Fortune Early College Panthers
Elite has been on the road for five straight, but on Tuesday they'll finally head home. They will take on the Fortune Early College Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Elite will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps California Rankings (they are ranked 1289th, while the Panthers are ranked 577th).
Last Thursday, Elite was beaten by the Explorers 68-23. Elite was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 33-9.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Amaiya Seeberry, who scored two points along with eight steals and six rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Savannah Barrow, who scored ten points along with two steals.
Meanwhile, Fortune Early College put the finishing touches on their 13th blowout victory of the season on Thursday. They took their game at home with ease, bagging a 70-13 victory over Leroy Greene Academy. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 55-3.
Fortune Early College found their leader in underclassman Alaziah "Lay" Akinmurele, who almost dropped a double-double on 27 points and nine rebounds. Akinmurele has been hot recently, having posted three or more steals the last eight times she's played. Heaven Graves was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with seven steals.
Elite has not been sharp recently as the team's lost 16 of their last 17 matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 2-21 record this season. As for Fortune Early College, they pushed their record up to 16-4 with that victory, which was their seventh straight at home.
Elite was dealt a bruising 76-8 loss at the hands of the Panthers when the teams last played back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Akinmurele, who almost dropped a double-double on 29 points and nine rebounds. Now that Elite knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
