Even though the King's Academy Lions scored an imposing 76 points on Friday, the Jellico Blue Devils still came out on top. Jellico narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past King's Academy 78-76. For Jellico, this counts as revenge for the 93-86 defeat King's Academy walked away with the last time they faced one another back in November of 2019.
Jellico had a senior duo take command as Carson Bolton scored 28 points along with five rebounds and four steals and Isaac McNealy scored 15 points along with six assists and six steals. The match was Bolton's 14th in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of John Zecchini, who scored eight points along with six rebounds.
Despite the loss, King's Academy still got an impressive performance from Harrison Rollins, who dropped a double-double on 35 points and 17 rebounds. Rollins scored a full 46.1% of King's Academy's points, the 15th time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Colby Cogdill was another key contributor, scoring 19 points.
Even though they lost, King's Academy were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 20 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Jellico has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-8 record this season. As for King's Academy, they have fallen quite a ways from their 27-7 record last season and are now at 4-12.
Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Jellico will take on Wartburg Central at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. King's Academy and Boyd-Buchanan will face off at 3:00 p.m. on January 2nd without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Boyd-Buchanan is coming into the match hot, having won their last six games.
