The Hale Eagles will head out on the road to challenge the Hillman Tigers at 7:15 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Hale comes in on four and Hillman on 12.
Hale proved they can win big on Tuesday (they won by 38) but on Friday they proved they can win the close ones too. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 48-45 victory over Posen.
Meanwhile, Hillman stacked a ninth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Fairview 69-28 on the road. Given Hillman's advantage in MaxPreps' Michigan basketball rankings (they are ranked 310th, while Fairview is ranked 710th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Trenton Taratuta continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, dropping a double-double on 21 points and ten rebounds. He hasn't dropped below 17 points for 14 straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Brenden Rouleau, who scored 13 points along with three steals.
The victory got Hale back to even at 9-9. As for Hillman, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 13 of their last 14 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 17-2 record this season.
Hale came up short against Hillman when the teams last played back in January, falling 62-49. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Taratuta, who almost dropped a triple-double on 17 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists. Now that Hale knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
