The Blackman Blaze entered their tilt with the Oakland Patriots with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. Blackman secured a 49-44 W over Oakland on Thursday. That's another feather in the cap for Blackman, who also won these teams' last head-to-head.
Blackman's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Kaelyn Flowers led the charge by scoring 21 points along with four steals. Flowers is trending in the right direction, as she's improved her point production for three games straight. The team also got some help courtesy of Lyriq Mastin, who scored 18 points along with two steals.
Despite the loss, Oakland still got an impressive performance from Alonna Poole, who scored 14 points along with five rebounds and two blocks. Another player making a difference was Kyla Joy, who scored six points along with eight rebounds.
Even though they lost, Oakland smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Blackman only pulled down seven offensive rebounds.
Blackman has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a massive bump to their 10-7 record this season. As for Oakland, their defeat ended a four-game streak of away wins and brought them to 9-10.
Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Blackman will take on Riverdale at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Riverdale will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Tennessee Rankings (they are ranked 292nd, while Blackman is ranked 37th). As for Oakland, they won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Rockvale at 6:00 p.m. on January 26th. Rockvale has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last four games.
