Basketball Recap: Joel Trujillo's Big Game Can't Quite Lead East Lee County over Gateway

East Lee County lost against Gateway back in January of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Thursday. The East Lee County Jaguars lost to the Gateway Eagles at home by a 81-66 margin. While losing is never fun, the Jaguars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 613th, while the Eagles are ranked 233rd).

Several Jaguars players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Joel Trujillo, who went 6 of 14 on his way to 16 points and seven boards. Trujillo has been hot recently, having also posted two or more steals the last three times he's played. Tobias Jean-Louis was another key player, putting up 16 points in addition to six rebounds and three steals.

Jaguars

Previous 2 Games

01/23/25 vs Gateway	66-81
01/21/25 vs Palmetto Ridge	59-96

Even though they lost, East Lee County smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive boards in 11 consecutive matchups.

Christopher Davis was his usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 26 points and ten boards for Gateway. Another player making a difference was EJ Monteagudo, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 16 rebounds.

East Lee County has been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four games, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-15 record this season. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.3 points per game. As for Gateway, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 13-7 record this season.

East Lee County will be playing at home against Immokalee at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. East Lee County knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past three matchups -- so hopefully Immokalee likes a good challenge. As for Gateway, they didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next game, a 64-46 win against Gulf Coast on the 25th.