The New Hartford Spartans will head out on the road to take on the Rome Free Academy Black Knights at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. New Hartford is hoping to put an end to a five-game streak of away losses.
New Hartford suffered their biggest defeat yet this season on Saturday. They had to suffer through a rough 61-33 loss at the hands of Colonie Central. While losing is never fun, New Hartford can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' New York basketball rankings (they are ranked 435th, while Colonie Central is ranked fourth).
Meanwhile, Rome Free Academy had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 28.3 points), and they went ahead and made it nine on Tuesday. They took down Cicero-North Syracuse 97-78. Having run the score up that high, both teams might be doing some extra defensive drills very soon.
Rome Free Academy's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Deandre Neal, who scored 26 points along with three steals. Neal is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last eight games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Surafia Norries, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 11 assists.
New Hartford's loss dropped their record down to 2-9. As for Rome Free Academy, their win bumped their record up to 12-1.
New Hartford came up short against Rome Free Academy when the teams last played back in December of 2023, falling 82-75. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Rome Free Academy's Uzziah Grimes, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and ten rebounds. Now that New Hartford knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
