Basketball Preview: Oak Mountain Academy Warriors vs. Atlanta Jewish Academy Jaguar
After both having extra time off, the Oak Mountain Academy Warriors and the Atlanta Jewish Academy Jaguar will shake off the cobwebs and square off against one another at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Oak Mountain Academy focused on turnovers this week as the team gave up 30 last Tuesday.
Oak Mountain Academy is headed into the matchup out to prove that what happened against Harvester Christian Academy last Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Oak Mountain Academy came up short against Harvester Christian Academy, falling 65-39. The Warriors have struggled against the Hawks recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive lost matchup.
Despite the loss, Oak Mountain Academy had strong showings from Jeb Harper, who dropped a double-double on 15 points and 18 rebounds, and Mads Koelling, who earned 14 points in addition to eight rebounds. Koelling continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played.
Even though they lost, Oak Mountain Academy smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 15 offensive rebounds in four consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Atlanta Jewish Academy was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap last Thursday as they fell 55-51 to Fulton Science Academy. The match marked the Jaguar's lowest-scoring contest so far this season.
Despite the defeat, Atlanta Jewish Academy got top-tier performance from Zac Agichtein, who almost dropped a double-double on 33 points and nine rebounds. The matchup was Agichtein's ninth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Aryeh Cohen, who earned 12 points in addition to five rebounds.
Atlanta Jewish Academy's loss dropped their record down to 3-2. As for Oak Mountain Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-3.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Oak Mountain Academy has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 42.5 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Atlanta Jewish Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 33.8. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Oak Mountain Academy might still be hurting after the 55-31 loss they got from Atlanta Jewish Academy in their previous meeting on November 12th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Agichtein, who scored 27 points plus eight rebounds and three steals. Now that Oak Mountain Academy knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
