Monroe County is 0-10 against Hillcrest since February of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Monroe County Tigers will head out on the road to face off against the Hillcrest Jaguars at 7:30 p.m. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Last Tuesday, Monroe County didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Excel, but they still walked away with a 51-45 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Monroe County.
Meanwhile, Hillcrest came tearing into Tuesday's match with seven straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 20.9 points) and they left with even more momentum. They breezed by Thomasville at home to the tune of 91-54. Hillcrest has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 12 matches by 23 points or more this season.
Hillcrest can attribute much of their success to Jermonte Stallworth, who scored 22 points, and Robert Simpson, who scored 18 points along with eight rebounds and six blocks. Simpson has been hot recently, having posted two or more blocks the last eight times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Jordan Bonner, who scored 12 points.
Monroe County's victory bumped their record up to 9-10. As for Hillcrest, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 15 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 23-4 record this season.
Monroe County came up short against Hillcrest in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, falling 64-52. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Simpson, who shot 4-for-5 from downtown and dropped a double-double on 20 points and ten rebounds. Now that Monroe County knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.