Having just played yesterday, the Jefferson J-Hawks will head out on the road to face off against the Harlem Huskies at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
On Thursday, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Jefferson beat Rockford East 68-64. The win was all the more spectacular given the J-Hawks' disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 351st, while the E-Rabs are ranked 153rd).
Meanwhile, Harlem lost to Rockford East on the road by a 81-66 margin on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Wednesday (56), the Huskies still had to take the loss.
Jefferson will need to focus on slowing down Mateo Perera, one of several Harlem players who made an impact when they last played. He went 6-for-10 on his way to 17 points. Perera is also on a roll when it comes to shooting accuracy, as he's posted one of at least 45% in the last four games he's played. Another player making a difference was Jackson Cook, who dropped a double-double with ten points and 11 rebounds.
Even though they lost, Harlem was working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in January of 2024.
Jefferson has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a massive bump to their 12-17 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.8 points over those games. As for Harlem, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 10-17.
Jefferson didn't have too much breathing room in their matchup against Harlem in their previous matchup back in January, but they still walked away with a 60-54 victory. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Perera, who went 8-for-17 to rack up 22 points. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Jefferson still be able to contain Perera? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
