After two games on the road, Eastmoor Academy is heading back home. They will be home for the holidays to greet the Walnut Ridge Scots at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Eastmoor Academy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 19 on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, Eastmoor Academy suffered a tough 68-44 loss at the hands of South. While losing is never fun, Eastmoor Academy can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 259th, while South is ranked 100th).
Defeat or not, Eastmoor Academy got some senior leadership from James Nowell who scored 18 points along with five rebounds and Elijah Watkins who scored 11 points along with five assists. Nowell scored a full 40.9% of Eastmoor Academy's points, the third time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, Walnut Ridge strolled past Africentric Early College with points to spare on Tuesday, taking the game 63-49. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Walnut Ridge.
Dominique Aekins was the offensive standout of the matchup as he scored 20 points. The matchup was his third in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Marquis Lucas, who scored 11 points along with eight rebounds.
Eastmoor Academy's loss ended a three-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 2-1. As for Walnut Ridge, they now have a winning record of 2-1.
Keep an eye on the arc in Friday's matchup: Eastmoor Academy have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 4.3 threes per game. It's a different story for Walnut Ridge, though, as they've been averaging only 6 threes per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Eastmoor Academy strolled past Walnut Ridge when the teams last played back in January by a score of 71-55. Will Eastmoor Academy repeat their success, or does Walnut Ridge have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
