The Babcock Trailblazers will square off against the North Fort Myers Red Knights at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.
Babcock is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They blew past Southwest Florida Christian, posting a 64-16 victory. The Trailblazers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four contests by 23 points or more this season.
Babcock can attribute much of their success to Makena Ferry, who posted 20 points and five rebounds, and Marianeliz Murillo, who earned 20 points and six rebounds. Ferry continues to improve, besting her previous point total in each of the last five games she's played. Another player making a difference was Meikah Ferry, who had ten points and six boards.
Meanwhile, North Fort Myers had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 10.7 points) and they went ahead and made it four on Friday. They took their game with ease, bagging a 61-25 win over the Bulldogs. That 36 point margin sets a new team best for the Red Knights this season.
Babcock better keep an eye on Bianca Iten. She was instrumental in North Fort Myers' win, shooting 5-for-9 from deep and dropping a double-double on 28 points and 12 boards. That makes it four consecutive games in which Iten has scored at least a third of North Fort Myers' points. The team also got some help courtesy of Lily Erickson, who went 6 of 9 on her way to 16 points and seven rebounds.
Babcock is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 6-3 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 27.4 points per game. As for North Fort Myers, their victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 4-1.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Babcock has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 30.7 boards per game. However, it's not like North Fort Myers struggles in that department as they've been averaging 41.6 rebounds. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Babcock came up short against North Fort Myers when the teams last played back in November, falling 41-31. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Iten, who posted 23 points in addition to eight rebounds and four steals. Now that Babcock knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
