Basketball Game Preview: Jefferson Democrats vs. Manual Arts Toilers

Jefferson is 2-8 against Manual Arts since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Jefferson Democrats will be playing at home against the Manual Arts Toilers at 4:30 p.m. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.

Jefferson took a loss when they played away from home on Thursday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Diego Rivera, sneaking past 61-59.

Meanwhile, Manual Arts was able to grind out a solid victory over Santee on Friday, taking the game 91-81. Given the Toilers' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 610th, while the Falcons are ranked 1269th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Jefferson better keep an eye on Devin Moody. He was instrumental in Manual Arts' win, dropping a double-double on 54 points and 21 rebounds. The matchup was Moody's 45th in a row with at least 16 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Julian Gonzalez, who posted 13 points.

Manual Arts is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a massive bump to their 14-9 record this season. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 31.6 points. As for Jefferson, their win bumped their record up to 5-8.

Jefferson took a serious blow against Manual Arts when the teams last played two weeks ago, falling 97-51. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Moody, who dropped a triple-double on 33 points, 16 boards, and 11 assists. Now that Jefferson knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.