The Griffin Bears will head out on the road to square off against the Hardaway Hawks at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
With a playoff game on the line, Griffin rose to the challenge on Tuesday. They blew past the Phoenix 57-18 at home. Given Griffin's advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 117th, while New Hampstead is ranked 322nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Hardaway had already won 20 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 35.3 points), and they went ahead and made it 21 on Tuesday. They claimed a resounding 79-29 victory over Troup County at home. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point Hardaway had established a 42 point advantage.
Hardaway relied on the efforts of Akilah Shelton, who scored 19 points along with eight rebounds and six assists, and Mikayla Johnson, who scored 30 points along with five rebounds and two steals. Shelton hasn't dropped below two steals for eight straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of LaNiya Meeks, who scored seven points along with 13 rebounds and three steals.
Griffin has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 19-10 record this season. As for Hardaway, they pushed their record up to 24-4 with that win, which was their 19th straight at home dating back to last season.
Griffin didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Hardaway when the teams last played back in March of 2023, but they still walked away with a 59-54 win. Does Griffin have another victory up their sleeve, or will Hardaway turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
