Basketball Game Preview: Jefferson Academy Jaguars vs. Conifer Lobos

The Jefferson Academy Jaguars and the Conifer Lobos will compete for holiday cheer at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Jefferson Academy is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 59.8 points per game this season.

Jefferson Academy will head into Saturday's match hoping to keep the good times rolling: they proved they can win big on Friday (they won by 36) and on Saturday they proved they can win the close ones too. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past The Academy 49-47. While the Jaguars didn't have the best season last year (they finished 10-13), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.

Jimeto Orji continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 20 points and 14 boards. Those 20 points gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Josh Neely, who went 6 of 14 en route to 14 points along with six assists and five boards.

Jefferson Academy smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in five consecutive games.

Meanwhile, Conifer unfortunately witnessed the end of their seven-game winning streak dating back to last season on Tuesday. They took a 59-53 hit to the loss column at the hands of Denver West. The loss put an end to the Lobos' undefeated start to the season.

Jefferson Academy's win bumped their record up to 4-1. As for Conifer, their loss was their first of the season and makes their record 6-1.

Jefferson Academy came up short against Conifer in their previous matchup back in December of 2015, falling 47-38. Thankfully for Jefferson Academy, Jack Studer (who dropped a double-double on 21 points and ten rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.