The Essex Trojans will be playing in front of their home fans against the King & Queen Central Royal Tigers at 6:15 p.m. on Monday. Essex will be coming into the matchup with an undefeated record on the line.
After only one point in their last contest, Essex made sure to put some points up on the board against the Drifters on Thursday. Essex enjoyed a cozy 62-44 win over the Drifters. Given Essex's advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 132nd, while the Drifters are ranked 345th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Essex's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Morgan Self, who almost dropped a triple-double on 13 points, nine rebounds, and 14 blocks, and Jaylah Mercer, who almost dropped a double-double on 33 points and nine steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Mercer has scored at least a third of Essex's points. Another player making a difference was Amani Brown, who scored six points along with six rebounds.
While King & Queen Central's victory against the Wolverines wasn't quite the blowout they won the last time the pair played, they still came away the winners. King & Queen Central didn't even let the Wolverines onto the board and left with a 2-0 victory on Friday. The win made it back-to-back wins for King & Queen Central.
Essex pushed their record up to 15-0 with that victory, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season. As for King & Queen Central, their victory bumped their record up to 9-7.
Everything came up roses for Essex against the Royal Tigers in their previous meeting back in January as the team secured a 72-32 win. Does Essex have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Royal Tigers turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
