Gainesville is 0-9 against Osbourn Park since December of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Gainesville Cardinals will head out on the road to challenge the Osbourn Park Yellowjackets at 6:30 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Two teams were on the hunt for playoff glory, but only Gainesville walked away with it. They claimed a resounding 57-29 win over the Bobcats at home. Given Gainesville's advantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 17th, while Battlefield is ranked 92nd), the result on Wednesday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Madison McKenzie was her usual excellent self, almost dropping a double-double on 33 points and nine rebounds. It was the first time this season that she pulled down eight or more rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Leylani Abraham, who scored six points along with six rebounds and five blocks.
Meanwhile, Osbourn Park had already won seven in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 35.1 points), and they went ahead and made it eight on Wednesday. They blew past Freedom 63-23 at home. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point Osbourn Park had established a 33 point advantage.
Gainesville is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a nice bump to their 19-4 record this season. As for Osbourn Park, their victory was their 19th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 19-3.
Gainesville came up short against Osbourn Park when the teams last played last Tuesday, falling 63-52. Can Gainesville avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
