St. John XXIII is 1-6 against Second Baptist since February of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The St. John XXIII Lions will be playing in front of their home fans against the Second Baptist Eagles at 7:30 p.m. The timing isn't great for St. John XXIII: they have been struggling with four straight losses at home, while Second Baptist has snatched up five consecutive wins on the road.
Last Tuesday, St. John XXIII earned a 41-30 victory over Kelly Catholic.
Meanwhile, you can't lose the contest if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Second Baptist's strategy against Kelly Catholic on Tuesday. Second Baptist came out on top against Kelly Catholic by a score of 68-55. Given Second Baptist's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 103rd, while Kelly Catholic is ranked 1073rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Second Baptist had a senior duo take command as Dyllan Thompson dropped a double-double on 23 points and 14 rebounds and Mike Olaly almost dropped a double-double on 22 points and nine rebounds. Canon Toon was another key contributor, scoring seven points along with five rebounds and two steals.
St. John XXIII's victory ended a three-game drought on the road and puts them at 4-13. As for Second Baptist, they are on a roll lately: they've won 15 of their last 16 games, which provided a nice bump to their 24-7 record this season.
St. John XXIII was dealt a bruising 80-49 loss at the hands of Second Baptist when the teams last played back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Second Baptist's Ivan Ramos, who scored 21 points along with two steals. Now that St. John XXIII knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
