The North Garland Raiders will head out on the road to square off against the South Garland Titans at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams have had a bumpy ride up to this point with three consecutive losses for North Garland and 25 for South Garland.
North Garland suffered their closest defeat since December 12, 2023 on Tuesday. They fell just short of Sachse by a score of 58-55. While losing is never fun, North Garland can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 832nd, while Sachse is ranked 210th).
Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 73-31, which was the final score in South Garland's tilt against Wylie on Friday. South Garland has struggled against Wylie recently, as their game on Friday was their ninth consecutive lost matchup.
Despite the defeat, South Garland saw an underclassman step up: Elijah Darden scored 23 points. Michael Bea was another key contributor, scoring two points along with seven rebounds and three steals.
South Garland struggled to work together and finished the game with only four assists. They are winless (0-8) when they just don't pass the ball.
North Garland has not been sharp recently as the team has lost 11 of their last 13 matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-18 record this season. As for South Garland, their loss was their ninth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 0-25.
North Garland was able to grind out a solid win over South Garland when the teams last played back in January, winning 68-57. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Darden, who scored 30 points along with six rebounds and three steals. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will North Garland still be able to contain Darden? There's only one way to find out.
