Basketball Preview: Veterans Memorial Patriots vs. Wagner Thunderbirds
The Veterans Memorial Patriots will be playing in front of their home fans against the Wagner Thunderbirds at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Veterans Memorial comes in on 24 and the Thunderbirds on four.
Even though Seguin scored an imposing 58 points on Tuesday, Veterans Memorial still came out on top. Veterans Memorial took their match against the Matadors 70-58. Given Veterans Memorial's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 14th, while the Matadors are ranked 413th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Veterans Memorial had a senior duo take command as Demarion Dennis scored 19 points along with six assists and Devin McCloud scored 14 points along with six rebounds and five assists. As a matter of fact, that's the most points McCloud has scored all season. Jionte Jones was another key contributor, scoring eight points along with three steals.
Meanwhile, even though Tivy scored an imposing 64 points on Tuesday, Wagner still came out on top. Wagner snuck past the Antlers with a 68-64 victory.
Marcus Johnson had a dynamite game for Wagner, scoring 19 points along with eight rebounds. It was the first time this season that Johnson pulled down eight or more rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Daimen Ramirez, who scored 13 points.
Veterans Memorial pushed their record up to 31-1 with that victory, which was their seventh straight on the road. As for Wagner, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 19-9 record this season.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Veterans Memorial hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 65.3 points per game. However, it's not like Wagner struggles in that department as they've been averaging 62 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.
Veterans Memorial came out on top in a nail-biter against the Thunderbirds when the teams last played back in January, sneaking past 45-42. Will Veterans Memorial repeat their success, or do the Thunderbirds have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
