Two dominant guards in Wade Stilson and JJ Apathjang are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Emery Spartans are on the road again on Thursday and plays the Judge Memorial Catholic Bulldogs at 12:50 p.m. on February 22nd. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
With a playoff game on the line, Emery rose to the challenge on Saturday. Everything went their way against the Bears as they made off with a 61-35 victory. Emery has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten contests by 21 points or more this season.
Emery got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Stilson out in front who almost dropped a double-double on nine rebounds and nine assists. Stilson hasn't dropped below two steals for five straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Creek Sharp, who almost dropped a double-double on 20 points and nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, Judge Memorial Catholic was able to grind out a solid win over Morgan on Saturday, taking the game 59-49.
Apathjang continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 21 points and 12 rebounds. That makes it three consecutive games in which he has scored at least a third of Judge Memorial Catholic's points. Aaydan Saucedo was another key contributor, scoring 12 points along with five rebounds and two steals.
Emery is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 19-5 record this season. As for Judge Memorial Catholic, their win bumped their record up to 11-13.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Emery hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 62.4 points per game. However, it's not like Judge Memorial Catholic struggles in that department as they've been averaging 63.3 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Emery strolled past Judge Memorial Catholic in their previous matchup back in February of 2020 by a score of 81-66. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Judge Memorial Catholic's Deng Mayer, who dropped a double-double on 29 points and 11 rebounds. Now that he won't be playing on Thursday, will it be that much easier for Emery to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
