The Rickards Raiders had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 26.2 points), and they went ahead and made it six on Saturday. They enjoyed a cozy 53-35 victory over Columbia. Given Rickards' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 45th, while Columbia is ranked 146th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Rickards' success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Amirahs Hayes led the charge by scoring 16 points along with five rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Hayes has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Journee Belcher, who scored nine points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Rickards pushed their record up to 14-4 with that victory, which was their eighth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.8 points per game. As for Columbia, their loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 11-7.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Rickards will square off against Chiles at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Chiles focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 on Saturday. As for Columbia, Columbia and St. Augustine will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 23rd without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. St. Augustine has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 257 points over their last four games.
