Basketball Game Preview: Jacksonville Christian Academy Thunder vs. Cedar Bluff Tigers

The Jacksonville Christian Academy Thunder and the Cedar Bluff Tigers will round out the year against one another at at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Jacksonville Christian Academy knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past four matches -- so hopefully Cedar Bluff likes a good challenge.

While Jacksonville Christian Academy didn't have the best season last year (they finished 9-17), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They took their game on Monday with ease, bagging an 82-46 victory over Woodland. The Thunder have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five contests by 29 points or more this season.

Meanwhile, Cedar Bluff suffered their biggest loss since January 30th last Monday. They lost 71-49 to Spring Garden. While losing is never fun, the Tigers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 356th, while the Panthers are ranked 64th).

Jacksonville Christian Academy is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-2 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 73.0 points per game. As for Cedar Bluff, they dropped their record down to 4-8 with the defeat, which was their fourth straight at home.

Things could have been worse for Jacksonville Christian Academy, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 71-57 loss to Cedar Bluff in their previous matchup on December 2nd. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cedar Bluff's Shon Gleen, who went 14 of 27 on his way to 31 points and eight rebounds. Now that Jacksonville Christian Academy knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.