The Bakersfield Drillers will venture away from home to face off against the Central Grizzlies at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Bakersfield is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Saturday. Everything went their way against Redwood as Bakersfield made off with an 85-59 win. The Drillers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won ten games by 21 points or more this season.
Kade Johnson
| 02/15/25 vs Redwood | 21 |
| 02/11/25 vs Independence | 16 |
| 02/06/25 @ Ridgeview | 25 |
| 02/04/25 @ Bakersfield Christian | 27 |
| 01/30/25 vs Centennial | 23 |
| + 3 more games |
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Bakersfield to victory, but perhaps none more so than Kade Johnson, who went 8-for-17 en route to 21 points. The match was Johnson's eighth in a row with at least 16 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Dominic Contreras, who went 6-for-9 to rack up 17 points.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Central). They took their contest on Saturday with ease, bagging an 81-50 victory over Tulare Western. Given the Grizzlies' advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 141st, while the Mustangs are ranked 373rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Bakersfield has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 20-10 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 70.8 points over those games. As for Central, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 18-12.
Bakersfield strolled past Central when the teams last played back in February of 2019 by a score of 69-52. The rematch might be a little tougher for Bakersfield since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
