Rockford East has been on the road for two straight, but on Friday they'll finally head home. They will be home for the holidays to greet the Freeport Pretzels at 6:30 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
It's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 75-37, which was the final score in Rockford East's tilt against Harlem on Tuesday. Rockford East was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 47-22.
Rockford East's loss came about despite a quality game from Promise Crawford, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and ten rebounds. Crawford scored a full 51.4% of Rockford East's points, the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Sanaiya Kamau, who scored five points.
Meanwhile, Freeport's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Tuesday after their fourth straight loss. They received a tough blow as they fell 48-34 to Boylan Catholic. While losing is never fun, Freeport can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 285th, while Boylan Catholic is ranked 76th).
Rockford East bumped their record down to 2-7 with that loss, which was their 15th straight on the road dating back to last season. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 25.5 points per game. As for Freeport, they have traveled a rocky road recently, as they've lost six of their last seven matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-6 record this season.
Rockford East took a serious blow against Freeport in their previous meeting back in January, falling 75-23. The match was all but decided by halftime, at which point Rockford East was down 52-10.
