Basketball Game Preview: Veterans Warhawks vs. Coffee Trojans

Two dominant forwards in Tristen Abner and Khyolic Paulk are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Veterans Warhawks will welcome the Coffee Trojans at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Veterans has five straight victories, Coffee has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

Last Saturday, the stars were shining brightly for Veterans in a 59-45 win over Perry. Given the Warhawks' advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 165th, while the Panthers are ranked 504th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Veterans to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jaivyon Dawson, who went 6 for 8 on his way to 15 points in addition to six rebounds and five assists. The dominant performance gave Dawson a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Trey Byrd, who went 7 of 10 on his way to 17 points and five rebounds.

Meanwhile, Coffee came up short against Tattnall County on Saturday and fell 56-47.

Veterans has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a massive bump to their 7-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 69.3 points per game. As for Coffee, their loss dropped their record down to 3-8.

Everything came up roses for Veterans against Coffee when the teams last played back in February of 2022, as the team secured a 56-24 victory. Will Veterans repeat their success, or does Coffee have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.