Basketball Game Preview: Ballou Knights vs. Cardozo Clerks

The Ballou Knights will face off against the Cardozo Clerks at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Ballou knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past five games -- so hopefully Cardozo likes a good challenge.

Ballou is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of District of Columbia's top teams: Bard, who was ranked 24th at the time (Ballou was ranked 15th). Ballou walked away with a 59-50 victory over Bard on Wednesday.

Cardozo has been a dominant force so far, but they're in the middle of a mini-slump at the moment. They received a blow on Wednesday as they fell 70-52 to Jackson-Reed. The contest marked the Clerks' lowest-scoring match so far this season.

Ballou has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-7 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 58.8 points per game. As for Cardozo, their defeat was their first in the league, dropping their league record down to 9-1 and their overall record down to 15-4.

Ballou was taken down by Cardozo 72-33 in their previous matchup back in February of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cardozo's Cameron Young, who went 9 of 14 en route to 23 points and three steals. Now that Ballou knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.