The Gateway Eagles's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Central Bears at 7:00 p.m. on February 20th. One thing working in Gateway's favor is that they have posted big point totals in their last five matches.
With a playoff game on the line, Gateway rose to the challenge on Thursday. They came out on top against the Wildcats by a score of 59-48. Given Gateway's advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 111th, while Estero is ranked 395th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Gateway's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Tavian Cook led the charge by scoring 18 points. Cook hasn't dropped below 18 points for eight straight games. Christopher Davis was another key contributor, scoring 17 points.
Meanwhile, Central had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They walked away with a 67-59 win over Lakewood. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Gateway has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 12 of their last 13 games, which provided a nice bump to their 21-3 record this season. As for Central, their win bumped their record up to 22-6.
Gateway came out on top in a nail-biter against Central in their previous matchup back in February of 2023, sneaking past 68-65. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Central's Tylor Daniel, who scored 20 points along with six assists and six rebounds. Now that he won't be playing on Tuesday, will it be that much easier for Gateway to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
