After six games on the road, Evergreen Christian is heading back home. They will take on the Virginia Academy Patriots at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Evergreen Christian knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with flashy point totals in its past 12 contests -- so hopefully Virginia Academy likes a good challenge.
Even though Riverdale Baptist scored an imposing 74 points on Tuesday, Evergreen Christian still came out on top. Evergreen Christian walked away with an 86-74 victory over Riverdale Baptist.
Jackson Britt and Matthew Shelton were among the main playmakers for Evergreen Christian as the former scored 23 points and the latter scored 24 points along with three steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Britt has scored all season. Rodney Ekwoanya was another key contributor, scoring 14 points along with eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Virginia Academy pushed their score all the way to 57 last Wednesday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 65-57 hit to the loss column at the hands of Benedictine. While losing is never fun, Virginia Academy can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 170th, while Benedictine is ranked 30th).
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Surafel Muluneh, who scored 17 points. That's the first time this season that he scored 15 or more points. Another player making a difference was Rondel Jones Jr., who scored seven points along with seven assists and four steals.
Evergreen Christian pushed their record up to 18-6 with that win, which was their eighth straight on the road. As for Virginia Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-16.
Keep an eye on the arc in Saturday's match: Evergreen Christian have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 50.8% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Virginia Academy, though, as they've only made 12.6% of their threes per game this season. Given Evergreen Christian's sizeable advantage in that area, Virginia Academy will need to find a way to close that gap.
Evergreen Christian strolled past Virginia Academy in their previous meeting on January 8th by a score of 68-51. Will Evergreen Christian repeat their success, or does Virginia Academy have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
