Queen's Grant is on a three-game streak of home wins, while Jackson Day is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. Having just played yesterday, the Queen's Grant Stallions will get right back to it and host the Jackson Day Mariners at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Queen's Grant is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Valor Preparatory Academy: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Queen's Grant blew Valor Preparatory Academy out of the water with an 85-19 final score. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 58-13.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Queen's Grant to victory, but perhaps none more so than Za'Miya Bynum, who went 15 of 24 en route to 32 points along with eight assists and eight steals. That makes it 15 consecutive games in which Bynum has scored at least a third of Queen's Grant's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Misa Garris, who dropped a double-double on 28 points and 11 steals.
Bynum wasn't the only one working in the assists department: Queen's Grant was working as a unit and finished the game with 20 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, you're bound to get a positive result if you outscore your opponent every quarter, and that's exactly how it played out for Jackson Day on Friday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that they blew Sugar Creek Charter out of the water with a 73-5 final score. Given the Mariners' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 203rd, while the Wildcats are ranked 581st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jackson Day found their leader in sophomore Tralyn Phillips, who went 9 for 20 on her way to 21 points in addition to six assists and six steals. Mya Young was another key player, going 6 of 14 en route to 13 points along with five boards and three steals.
Jackson Day has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 23.7 points per game. As for Queen's Grant, their win bumped their record up to 11-4.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Queen's Grant and Jackson Day are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Queen's Grant hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 61.9 points per game. However, it's not like Jackson Day struggles in that department as they've been averaging 59 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Queen's Grant strolled past Jackson Day in their previous matchup back in December of 2024 by a score of 47-31. Does Queen's Grant have another victory up their sleeve, or will Jackson Day turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
