The Hialeah Gardens Gladiators had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 12.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They managed a 61-56 win over Coral Gables. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Leading Hialeah Gardens to victory were Khalil Volel and Sebastian Pupo. Volel scored 18 points along with nine rebounds, while Pupo scored 29 points along with seven assists and two steals. Pupo hasn't dropped below 15points for nine straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Justin Munoz, who scored four points along with two blocks.
Coral Gables' loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Gabriel Chang, who scored 22 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Chang has scored all season. Cristian Andres Paredes was another key contributor, scoring 16 points along with eight rebounds.
Hialeah Gardens has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-4 record this season. As for Coral Gables, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 11-5.
Hialeah Gardens on the road again on Tuesday and play against Goleman at 7:30 p.m. on January 16th. Goleman will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 659th, while Hialeah Gardens is ranked 118th). As for Coral Gables, they will face off against Palmetto at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Hopefully Palmetto focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up seven on Friday.
