The Ironwood Eagles had already won 12 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 19.1 points), and they went ahead and made it 13 on Friday. They took their match at home with ease, bagging a 63-32 win over Apollo. Ironwood has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 11 matches by 23 points or more this season.
Ironwood had a senior duo take command as Noah Gifft went 7 for 9 from beyond the arc en route to 26 points and 2 assists and Blake Carabio scored 21 points along with five assists and two steals. Gifft hasn't dropped below 15points for six straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Jadden Jones, who scored five points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Apollo's loss came despite strong showings from Christian Acevedo and Joe Sumpter. Acevedo scored nine points along with seven rebounds and two blocks, while Sumpter scored six points.
Ironwood's win was their sixth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 18-2. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 79.7 points per game. As for Apollo, their loss dropped their record down to 13-6.
Ironwood will head out on the road to challenge Centennial at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Centennial will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Arizona Rankings (they are ranked 53rd, while Ironwood is ranked fifth). As for Apollo, Apollo and Kellis will face off at 7:00 p.m. on January 16th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Kellis is coming into the contest on a three-game losing streak.
