The Aquinas Fightin' Irish will challenge the Baldwin Braves at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.
Aquinas is headed into the matchup out to prove that what happened against Academy of Richmond County on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Aquinas had to suffer through a 76-45 loss at the hands of Academy of Richmond County. The Fightin' Irish were down 63-35 at the end of the third quarter, and things only got worse from there.
Meanwhile, Baldwin unfortunately witnessed the end of their six-game winning streak on Thursday. They fell just short of Cross Creek by a score of 49-47.
Aquinas will have to contain Deven Nelson as he made an impact in Baldwin's last game. He went 8 of 19 en route to 19 points in addition to eight rebounds and four blocks. The dominant performance gave Nelson a new career-high in blocks. The team also got some help courtesy of Karez Demory, who posted ten points and three steals.
Even though they lost, Baldwin smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in seven consecutive games.
Baldwin's defeat ended a five-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 17-6. As for Aquinas, their loss was their seventh straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 5-18.
Aquinas was taken down by Baldwin 78-37 when the teams last played back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Baldwin's Amos Bouie Tumer, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 12 boards. Now that Aquinas knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
