The East Ridge Knights will head out on the road to face off against the Olympia Titans at 7:30 p.m. on Monday. Hopefully East Ridge focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 37 on Tuesday.
East Ridge suffered their biggest defeat since December 12, 2023 on Tuesday. Their rough 48-22 defeat to Leesburg might stick with them for a while. While losing is never fun, East Ridge can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 316th, while Leesburg is ranked 93rd).
Despite the loss, East Ridge had strong showings from Tychelle Gordon, who scored five points along with six rebounds, and Neishaliz De Jesus, who scored a point.
Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, Olympia beat Lake Nona 58-53 on Thursday. The win made it back-to-back wins for Olympia.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Olympia to victory, but perhaps none more so than Arlinda Roundtree, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 19 rebounds. Roundtree continues to roll, besting her previous point total in each of the last five games she's played. Another player making a difference was Ava Pazos, who scored 16 points along with five rebounds and five steals.
East Ridge has been struggling recently, as they've lost three of their last four games, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-8 record this season. As for Olympia, the win got them back to even at 7-7.
Monday's contest is shaping up to be a scrappy game: East Ridge have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 23.7 rebounds per game. It's a different story for Olympia, though, as they've been averaging only 25.6 rebounds per game. Given East Ridge's sizeable advantage in that area, Olympia will need to find a way to close that gap.
East Ridge strolled past Olympia in their previous meeting back in December of 2023 by a score of 53-35. The rematch might be a little tougher for East Ridge since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
