The St. Francis Knights will face off against the King's Ridge Christian Tigers at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
King's Ridge Christian will be up against a hot St. Francis team: the squad just extended their winning streak to five. St. Francis took their matchup on Friday with ease, bagging an 81-48 victory over Fellowship Christian. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 181st, while the Paladins are ranked 406th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
| 01/24/25 @ Fellowship Christian | 24 |
| 01/17/25 vs Mount Paran Christian | 38 |
| 01/14/25 vs Business Engineering Science Tech | 20 |
St. Francis had a senior duo take command as Greg Howard went 8 of 13 on his way to 24 points and Reynolds Escher went 7 for 11 en route to 17 points along with seven rebounds and four steals. The contest was Howard's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Deniz Ozbek, who posted ten points.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask King's Ridge Christian). They blew past Fellowship Christian, posting an 88-51 win. The victory was nothing new for the Tigers as they're now sitting on three straight.
St. Francis better keep an eye on Zeplin Kidd. He was instrumental in King's Ridge Christian's win, going 10 for 19 en route to 27 points in addition to eight boards and four steals. That's the most steals Kidd has posted since back in November of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Alex Lowry, who went 5 of 11 on his way to 16 points along with six rebounds and four steals.
King's Ridge Christian's win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 10-7. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 83.8 points per game. As for St. Francis, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-8 record this season.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as St. Francis and King's Ridge Christian are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. St. Francis hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 71.4 points per game. However, it's not like King's Ridge Christian struggles in that department as they've been averaging 68.4 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
St. Francis beat King's Ridge Christian 62-54 in their previous meeting back in February of 2024. Will St. Francis repeat their success, or does King's Ridge Christian have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
