The Wagner Thunderbirds will head out on the road to face off against the Veterans Memorial Patriots at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Wagner sitting on four straight wins and the Patriots on 24.
Even though Tivy scored an imposing 64 points on Tuesday, Wagner still came out on top. Wagner secured a 68-64 W over the Antlers. Given Wagner's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 62nd, while the Antlers are ranked 314th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Marcus Johnson had a dynamite game for Wagner, scoring 19 points along with eight rebounds. Johnson continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last four games he's played. Another player making a difference was Daimen Ramirez, who scored 13 points.
Meanwhile, even though Seguin scored an imposing 58 points on Tuesday, Veterans Memorial still came out on top. Veterans Memorial walked away with a 70-58 win over the Matadors. Veterans Memorial pushed the score to 56-28 by the end of the third, a deficit the Matadors cut but never quite recovered from.
Veterans Memorial's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Devin McCloud, who scored 14 points along with six rebounds and five assists, and Demarion Dennis, who scored 19 points along with six assists. As a matter of fact, that's the most points McCloud has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Jionte Jones, who scored eight points along with three steals.
Wagner is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-9 record this season. As for Veterans Memorial, their win was their seventh straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 31-1.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Wagner have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 29.4 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Veterans Memorial struggles in that department as they've been averaging 29.5 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Wagner couldn't quite finish off the Patriots in their previous meeting back in January and fell 45-42. Can Wagner avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
