The Jacksonville Golden Eagles are on the road again on Thursday and play against the Fort Payne Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. on December 7th. Hopefully Jacksonville focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 14 on Monday.
Gadsden City typically have all the answers at home, but Jacksonville proved too difficult a challenge. Jacksonville sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 51-48 victory over Gadsden City.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Jacksonville to victory, but perhaps none more so than Devin Barksdale, who scored 17 points. The contest was Barksdale's sixth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Aaron Nixon, who scored 12 points along with 6 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Fort Payne put another one in the bag on Tuesday to keep their perfect season alive. They secured a 42-36 W over Anniston. Given Fort Payne's advantage in MaxPreps' Alabama basketball rankings (they are ranked ninth, while Anniston is ranked 69th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jacksonville's win bumped their record up to 5-1. As for Fort Payne, they pushed their record up to 7-0 with that win, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Jacksonville ended up a good deal behind Fort Payne in their previous meeting back in December of 2019, losing 76-60. Can Jacksonville avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
