The Gardendale Rockets will head out on the road to face off against the Hueytown Golden Gophers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. One thing working in Gardendale's favor is that they have posted big point totals in their last three matchups.
Gardendale pushed their score all the way to 56 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They fell to Carver Birmingham 61-56. The loss was a bit of a surprise, as Gardendale came into the match with a sizable advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 86th, while Carver Birmingham is ranked 201st).
Meanwhile, Hueytown had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 13.8 points), and they went ahead and made it five on Friday. They took their matchup at home with ease, bagging a 75-31 win over Brookwood. For those curious, yes, that was the biggest win Hueytown has managed all season.
Tyler Agee and Braylon Patton were among the main playmakers for Hueytown as the former scored 17 points and the latter scored 19 points. The game was Patton's 14th in a row with at least ten points. Derryck Patton was another key contributor, scoring ten points.
Gardendale has not been sharp recently, as they've lost three of their last four games, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-5 record this season. As for Hueytown, their victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-6.
Gardendale came up short against Hueytown in their previous meeting back in November, falling 72-66. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Patton, who scored 17 points. Now that Gardendale knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
