The Colonial Grenadiers will be playing at home against the Ocoee Knights at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Colonial sitting on ten straight wins and Ocoee on nine.
Colonial posted their biggest victory since November 28, 2023 last Wednesday. They breezed by Mainland at home to the tune of 61-25. Given Colonial's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked fourth, while Mainland is ranked 46th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Colonial's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jasmine Bocca, who scored 15 points along with three steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Jasmynne Gibson, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and ten rebounds.
Meanwhile, Ocoee can now show off nine landslide victories after their most recent matchup on Thursday. They took their matchup at home with ease, bagging a 60-27 win over Freedom. The contest was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 37-12.
Ocoee relied on the efforts of Micah Hannah, who scored ten points along with eight steals, and Jayla Weiser, who scored eight points along with nine steals. Hannah 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 Anjelle Kerr, who scored eight points along with seven rebounds and two steals.
Colonial pushed their record up to 17-2 with that victory, which was their 12th straight at home. They've been dominating during the matchups in that stretch too, as they've won by an average of 25.75 points. As for Ocoee, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-3 record this season.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's matchup: Colonial have been dynamite from deep this season, having nailed 40.9% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Ocoee struggles in that department as they've only made 34.3% of their threes per game this season. Given Colonial's sizeable advantage in that area, Ocoee will need to find a way to close that gap.
Colonial strolled past Ocoee when the teams last played back in December of 2022 by a score of 45-29. Does Colonial have another victory up their sleeve, or will Ocoee turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
