The Marbury Bulldogs will head out on the road to take on the Chilton County Tigers at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Marbury sitting on four straight wins and Chilton County on eight.
In what's become a running theme this season, Marbury gave their fans yet another huge victory on Thursday. They were the clear victor by a 52-28 margin over Elmore County. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest win Marbury has posted against Elmore County since February 11, 2021.
Nasiyah Jernigan and Justice Blackmon were among the main playmakers for Marbury as the former dropped a double-double on 17 points and 12 rebounds and the latter scored 19 points along with six steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Blackmon has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Elizabeth Woodfin, who scored three points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, Chilton County didn't have too much trouble with Calera on the road on Saturday as they won 63-44. Given Chilton County's advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked 121st, while Calera is ranked 296th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Iasia Anderson continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, almost dropping a triple-double on 16 points, 12 assists, and nine steals. Anderson is absolutely dominating the steal category: she's posted at least two every time she's taken the court this season. Another player making a difference was Ivyonna Varner, who scored 17 points along with eight steals and five rebounds.
Marbury has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 7-5 record this season. Chilton County's record now sits at 17-8.
Keep an eye on the arc in Tuesday's matchup: Marbury have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 6.1 threes per game. It's a different story for Chilton County, though, as they've been averaging only 5.4 threes per game. Given Marbury's sizeable advantage in that area, Chilton County will need to find a way to close that gap.
Marbury couldn't quite finish off Chilton County in their previous matchup back in November of 2023 and fell 55-53. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Anderson, who almost dropped a triple-double on 20 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists. Now that Marbury knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.